The failure of marriage is generally a consequence of the lack of maturity in the couple relationship due to the fact that the partners do not see the marital relationship as a good that exceeds their own individual behaviours. We witness today an increasing incompetence in understanding the dynamics of the reciprocal engagement and how it unfolds in the different phases of the couple’s life. Although all scholars acknowledge that engagement entails acting in, with, and through social relations, nevertheless, the intrinsically relational character of engagement remains obscure, largely implicit and unexplored. What appears to be extremely deficient is the moral character of the relationship per se, even when the partners have deep personal feelings of reciprocal affection. The Author argues that love is a social relation that should be cared for in itself, since the partners’ sentiments of love do not generate this relation by default. Particularly today, engagement becomes highly morphogenetic and requires new relational competences. The Author suggests a conceptual framework that can help to understand under what conditions engagement in a couple can generate a successful marriage. The core argument is that engagement becomes a source of relational goods only when the couple is ‘relationally reflexive’.
Which Engagement? The Couple’s Life as a Matter of Relational Reflexivity
DONATI, PIERPAOLO
2014
Abstract
The failure of marriage is generally a consequence of the lack of maturity in the couple relationship due to the fact that the partners do not see the marital relationship as a good that exceeds their own individual behaviours. We witness today an increasing incompetence in understanding the dynamics of the reciprocal engagement and how it unfolds in the different phases of the couple’s life. Although all scholars acknowledge that engagement entails acting in, with, and through social relations, nevertheless, the intrinsically relational character of engagement remains obscure, largely implicit and unexplored. What appears to be extremely deficient is the moral character of the relationship per se, even when the partners have deep personal feelings of reciprocal affection. The Author argues that love is a social relation that should be cared for in itself, since the partners’ sentiments of love do not generate this relation by default. Particularly today, engagement becomes highly morphogenetic and requires new relational competences. The Author suggests a conceptual framework that can help to understand under what conditions engagement in a couple can generate a successful marriage. The core argument is that engagement becomes a source of relational goods only when the couple is ‘relationally reflexive’.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
