The Sexual Life of Our Time in Its Relations to Modern Civilization: Translated from the Sixth German EditionBloch, Iwan
Philosophy
The Sexual Life of Our Time in Its Relations to Modern Civilization: Translated from the Sixth German Edition
Bloch, Iwan
Sex; Sexual ethics
Although the new marriage law is to give to =adult= citizens complete
freedom to arrange their erotic relationships at their own
=responsibility= and risk, =with= or =without= marriage, it remains
necessary that double marriages (bigamy), sexual relationships within
forbidden degrees, or on the part of persons suffering from
transmissible disease, which the law has declared to be a hindrance to
marriage, and also intercourse with persons under eighteen years of age,
should be regarded as punishable offences. The same is true of
homosexual and other perverse manifestations. The =trial= in such cases
will be conducted by a judge, with the assistance of a jury of
=physicians= and =crimino-psychologists=.
The writer does not believe that marriage will be transformed by legal
changes in the way outlined above, but she is of opinion that what will
happen is that “men and women will refuse to submit themselves to the
unworthy forms of marriage, which will remain established by law, and
will form free unions, the so-called ‘=marriage of conscience=,’” such
as those which the Belgian sociologist Mesnil has recommended in his
work, “Le Libre Mariage.”
It is, in fact, in Sweden, Ellen Key’s fatherland, in which these free
marriages of conscience appear to have first obtained adherents. She
records the free union of the professor of national economics at Lund,
Knut Wicksell. Additional reports of free marriages in Sweden are given
by the Swedish physician Anton Nyström.[204] He mentions among those who
have formed free unions, without legal or ecclesiastical ceremony, but
simply by public notification, in addition to the already mentioned
university professor, also the editor of a leading newspaper, a
physician and doctor of philosophy, and a candidate of philosophy. The
latter is engaged in study with his wife at the high school at Göteborg.
In February, 1904, they made a public announcement in the newspaper that
they were entering on a “marriage of conscience,” since they had a
conscientious objection to the ecclesiastical form of marriage. The
principal of the college wrote an address to the young couple, stating
that, although this union was not entered upon on immoral grounds, and
therefore could not be regarded as a punishable offence, still, such a
free union, unrecognized by the State, between man and woman, was not
compatible with the good order of society, that it was injurious to the
general ethical conception of the sacramental character of marriage, and
also constituted a dangerous example, which others might be led to
imitate. The principal therefore urged the young people most earnestly
“to place their union as soon as possible on a legitimate footing.” This
exhortation, however, led to no result.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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