Thursday, April 24, 2008

What is Marriage? #2

Wolfson explains his definition of marriage first because he wants to establish his definition to support his argument. Wolfson says that marriage is universal in all languages and cultures. He says that marriage is a personal commitment and that is a social statement which places someone in society. Also, marriage is a relationship between the couple and the government because of the protections, benefits, responsibility, and legal issues surrounding marriage. Marriage is also significant because is gives someone status. I think that his definition is well written and reasonable. Unlike the previous article by Santorum, Wolfson does not at all mention that it has to be between a man and a woman. His argument is not overly biased and it gives good solid facts to support his view that marriage doesn't have to be heterosexual.

1 comment:

Liz Watkins said...

Despite the fact that I agree with you that Wolfson's definition is reasonable, I don't think that he provides solid facts. As someone pointed out today in class, there really aren't any. He uses stories to emotionally sway his audience and uses moral and legal issues to contribute to his argument, but he doesn't give statistics. His legal points depend on the emotional attachment to the homosexuals who go through that, and his argument works on building that through his language.