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Scott Yenor

Scott Yenor is Professor of Political Science at Boise State University and author of Family Politics: The Idea of Marriage in Modern Political Thought and David Hume’s Humanity: The Philosophy of Common Life and Its Limits.

3d render illustration of a gold ring attached to two rings.

Polygamy (or Something Like It) Rises

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Reconceiving of marriage in terms of “self-expression” has been a terrible, value-laden mistake, betraying the pretensions to liberal neutrality. Plural marriage is inferior for raising children and for maintaining marital harmony; but most of all, in today’s climate, it creates a culture dedicated to adult sexual self-expression rather than the good of children and deep love.

Social Science Is Not Enough

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All the science in the world does not answer the deepest questions of political importance. Pretending that questions of political priority are merely technical or scientific questions is the lie of modern times. Conservatives must relearn this lesson in order to defend essential public goods like marriage and the family.

The Scandalous Academy: Social Science in Service of Identity Politics

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Thanks to the work of sociologist Mark Regnerus, a prominent peer-reviewed journal has retracted a deeply flawed study on how social stigma affects the life expectancy of sexual minorities. This failure of peer review isn’t an isolated case: the more social science research supports the dogmas of identity politics, the less closely it is examined, and the more enthusiastically it is promoted.

Can There Be a Moderate Feminism?

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A genuinely moderate feminism must begin with an acknowledgement of the goodness in human love, human community, and responsibility, not with a radical embrace of independence and self-created identities. It must acknowledge and respect some differences between the sexes and see them as part of human being.

How the New Corporate Elite Sold Same-Sex Marriage to the American Public

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Darel Paul’s meticulous, courageous account of how the elites brought same-sex marriage to America deserves to be read by all who would understand where we are and where we're going.

Marriage and Family Life Cannot be Privatized

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The existence of each political community depends on married adults having children and raising them to responsible adulthood.

The Rolling Revolution in Sex and Gender: A History

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Radical feminist attempts to divorce identity from sex put in motion a rolling revolution in marriage and family life whose latest turn is toward transgender rights.

Why Autonomy Cannot Explain Marriage and Family Life

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Radical autonomy does not capture the webs into which we are born, our experiences of deep neediness and equally deep love, our embodied nature, our reaction to tragedies and unforeseen obstacles, or our response to our children once they arrive. Autonomy resists the dependence at the heart of loving relationships.
Female Tennis players

A Sporting Difference: On Men’s and Women’s Athletics

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Despite current efforts to level the playing field between men and women in every area, the differences between men’s and women’s professional and collegiate sports make clear that some inequalities are unavoidable. With strength and speed as the factors governing success, men’s athletics will always be more popular.
Public Discourse

Toward Plural Marriage: Understanding and Countering the Liberal Wringer

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Anyone interested in defending marriage and family life must first expose the built-in biases and hidden moral teaching within the contemporary liberal perspective.
Public Discourse

Population Decline and the Birth Dearth

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Jonathan Last’s new book attributes population decline and the birth dearth to two trends that started in the Enlightenment era—first, an effort to limit death; second, an effort to control birth. Both trends are guided by a desire to control nature.
Public Discourse

Toward a Less Minimal Marriage

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A new argument that reduces marriage to any consensual caring relationship is grounded by a cynical view of human nature that we ought not accept.
Public Discourse

The Family: What Is to Be Done?

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Marital love implies dependence on another instead of autonomy, and it shows that certain goods (sex and procreation, love and marriage, marriage and parenthood) are connected. We must recover the language of self-giving. The second in a two-part series.
Public Discourse

The Family’s End

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The logic of contract and the movement to conquer nature have resulted in the triumph of autonomy and demise of the family. The first of a two-part series.
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