Gay Marriage

Paper Summary:

This essay examines the issue of gay marriages from the three basic forms of reasoning established by Aristotle--ethos (emotional rationales), pathos (rationales based on moral authority), and logos (based on logical reasoning). The writer argues that all aspects of Aristotelian thought can be seen as rationally favoring the establishment of gay marriage as a civil right. The paper concludes that arguments in each of the three primary areas of Aristotle's rational thinking--emotional, moral authority, and logical--demonstrate the benefits to be gained and the moral coherence of such unions.

From the Paper:

"The first of these is perhaps the most controversial, most frequently used, and yet least reasoned: an emotional appeal regarding the requisites for marriage in our society as "one man, one woman" or some similar catchphrase. The opposing arguments in this category center on the "sanctity of marriage" as a tradition that is ordained by a higher power (that is to say, higher than the government) as a sacred union between a man and a woman. Emotional appeals to preserve the traditional status of such unions revolve around this argument that the way things have "always" been; i.e., marriage between a man and a woman, ought to continue to be the way things are."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Balkin, Jack. What Brown v. Board of Education Should Have Said: The Nation's Top Legal Experts Rewrite America's Landmark Civil Rights Decision. New York: New York University Press, 2001.
• "Facts on Health Insurance," National Coalition on Health Coverage. Washington, DC: NCHC Press, 2004. Available online at http://www.apa.org/pi/reslgbc.html.
• Kennedy, George A. Aristotle: On Rhetoric. New York: Oxford University Press, 1991.
• Loving v. Virginia, 388 U.S. 1, 1967.
• McNeill, John. The Church and The Homosexual. Boston: Beacon Press, 1993.

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