Resumen de The family in the history of philosophy

Vittorio Hösle

• The essay pursues the development of family doctrines from Plalo to Gustav Radbruch, with a special focus on Plato, Aristotle, Aquinas, Kant, and Hegel. It defends Aristotle’s criticism of Plato, while insisting on Plato’s relatively progressive attitude toward female education in the Republic as well as toward women’s political rights in the Laws. It points to the important changes due to early Christianity (which were partly mirrored by Stoic discussions) as well as to Aquinas, finally leading to the legal indissolubility of marriage. The most important criticism of it in the 17th century is due to the Christian John Milton, while the agnostic Hume is one of the staunchest defenders of the inadmissibility of divorce. While Kant and Fichte continue the liberal individualist tradition, Hegel challenges the model in the name of a communitarian model. Wollstonecraft’s and John Stuart Mill’s insistence on the symmetry of the relation between the sexes in marriage is shown to be the most important driving force of modern reforms of family law.