No Slippery Slopes: Same-Sex Couples, Monogamy, and the Future of Marriage
Stephen Macedo will argue that both conservatives who warn of a slippery slope from same-sex marriage toward polygamy, adult incest, and the dissolution of marriage as we know it and many progressives who embrace the new law are wrong. He believes that the same principles of democratic justice that demand marriage equality for same sex couples also lend support to monogamous marriage. In his Athenaeum talk, he will explore the meaning of contemporary marriage and the reasons for both its fragility and its enduring significance.
Stephen Macedo is the Laurance S. Rockefeller Professor of Politics and the former director of the University Center for Human Values at Princeton University where he teaches and writes about political theory, ethics, American constitutionalism, and public policy.
His many books include Liberal Virtues: Citizenship, Virtue, and Community in Liberal Constitutionalism (Oxford, 1990); Diversity and Distrust: Civic Education in a Diverse Democracy (Harvard 2000); and Just Married: Same-Sex Couples, Monogamy, and the Future of Marriage (Princeton University Press, 2015).
He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and vice president of the American Society for Legal and Political Philosophy.
Professor Macedo’s Athenaeum talk is co-sponsored by the Salvatori Institute at CMC.
View Video: YouTube with Stephen Macedo
Food for Thought: Podcast with Stephen Macedo