MANCEPT Workshop 2023 - Intimacy and the State

This workshop will explore the tangled relationships between the state and our intimate lives. We hope to better understand the variety of ways that governments regulate intimacy, and to consider the normative implications of their interventions. In particular, we hope to explore the tension between the idea that the state plays a necessary role in ensuring our intimate relationships are not harmful or dominating, and the idea that state intervention is invasive, constraining, and violates liberal neutrality. We will explore criticisms of current aspects of state oversight, proposals for new forms of regulation, and visions of intimacy beyond regulation. 

Some of these questions are abstract: should the state seek to regulate intimacy at all? How extensive is the private sphere? Is oversight of intimate life compatible with neutrality on conceptions of the good? But some questions are more specific and concern the specific form of the state’s role. Should plural marriage be permitted? Does the state have duties towards friends? 

NB you will need to register for MANCEPT to attend this event, but the registration date has not yet been specified.