Monograph
Minimizing Marriage: Marriage, Morality, and the Law, New York: Oxford University Press, 2012.
Translated into Japanese for Hakutakusha Press, Tokyo, 2020.
Edited collections
1. Philosophical Foundations of Children’s and Family Law, Oxford:Oxford University Press, 2018. Co-edited with Lucinda Ferguson (Law Faculty, Oxford University).
2. After Marriage: Rethinking Marital Relationships, New York: Oxford University Press, 2016.
Journal articles and book chapters
- “Rights to Belong and Rights to Be Left Alone?: Claims to Caring Relationships and Their Limits,” for Being Social: The Philosophy of Social Human Rights, ed. Kimberley Brownlee, et al., (forthcoming 2022, OUP).
- “Price Gouging and the Duty of Easy Rescue,” Economics & Philosophy, 37:3 (2021): 329-353.
- “Care as Work: The Exploitation of Caring Attitudes and Emotional Labor,” in Caring for Liberalism: Dependency and Political Theory, ed. Amy Baehr and Asha Bhandary, New York: Routledge, 2020.
- “Rebuilding after Disaster: Inequality and the Political Importance of Place,” Social Theory and Practice 45:2 (2019): 179-204.
- “Polyamorous Weddings: Subversive Weddings and Weddings without Marriages,” Analize: Journal of Gender and Feminist Studies, Issue 11, 2018.
- “Paid and Unpaid Care: Marriage, Equality, and Domestic Workers,” Philosophical Foundations of Children’s and Family Law, ed. E. Brake and L. Ferguson (Oxford University Press, 2018), pp. 75-94.
- “Introduction: The Importance of Theory to Children’s and Family Law,” co-authored with Lucinda Ferguson, Philosophical Foundations of Children’s and Family Law, ed. E. Brake and L. Ferguson (Oxford University Press, 2018), pp. 1-40.
- “Love and the Law,” in Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Love, ed. Christopher Gray and Aaron Smuts, forthcoming with Oxford University Press, chapter published online 2017.
- “Is ‘Loving More’ Better?: The Values of Polyamory,” The Philosophy of Sex: Contemporary Readings, 7th edition, ed. Raja Halwani, Sarah Hoffman, and Alan Soble (Rowman and Littlefield, 2017), pp. 201-220.
- “Thinking Differently about Philosophical Progress: The Big Questions, Applied Philosophy, and The Profession,” Social Philosophy and Policy, Winter 2017, pp. 23-45.
- “Marriage for Everybody: What Is Marriage Equality?” in Desire, Love, and Identity: A Textbook for the Philosophy of Sex and Love, ed. Gary Foster (Toronto: Oxford University Press Canada, 2017), pp. 310-319.
- “Equality and Non-Hierarchy in Marriage: What Do Feminists Really Want?” In After Marriage, ed. E. Brake (New York: Oxford University Press, 2016).
- “Fair Care: Eldercare and Distributive Justice,” Politics, Philosophy, and Economics, vol. 16 no. 2 (2017), 132-151, first published online August 30, 2015.
- “Creation Theory: Do Genetic Ties Matter?” In Permissible Progeny, ed. S. Hannan, S. Brennan, and R. Vernon (New York: Oxford University Press, 2015).
- “Recognizing Care: The Case for Friendship and Polyamory,” Syracuse Law and Civic Engagement Journal, Issue 1, 2014 (<http://slace.syr.edu/>).
- “Feminism, Family Law, and the Social Bases of Self-Respect.” In Re-reading the Canon Series: Feminist Interpretations of Rawls, ed. Ruth Abbey (University Park, PA: Penn State University Press, 2013), pp. 57-74.
- “Is Divorce Promise-Breaking?,” Ethical Theory and Moral Practice 14:1 (2011): 23-39.
- “Minimal Marriage: What Political Liberalism Implies for Marriage Law,” Ethics 120:2 (2010): 302-337.
- “Willing Parents: A Voluntarist Account of Parental Role Obligations.” In Procreation and Parenthood, ed. David Archard and David Benatar (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010): 151-177.
- “Rethinking Marriage: What Role Should the State Play?,” Res Publica (Australia), Vol. 19, No. 1 (2010): 18-22.
- “‘You can always come back, but you can’t come back all the way’: freedom and the past in Dylan’s recent work.” In The Political Art of Bob Dylan (2nd ed.), ed. David Boucher and Gary Browning (Exeter: Imprint Academic, 2009): 184-206.
- “Marriage, Morality, and Institutional Value,” Ethical Theory and Moral Practice 10:3 (2007): 243-254.
- “‘To live outside the law, you must be honest’: freedom in Dylan’s lyrics.” In Dylan and Philosophy, ed. Peter Vernezze and Carl J. Porter (Chicago: Open Court, 2006): 78-89.
- “Fatherhood and Child Support: Do Men Have a Right to Choose?,” Journal of Applied Philosophy 22:1 (2005): 55-73.
- “Justice and Virtue in Kant’s Account of Marriage,” Kantian Review 9 (2005): 58-94.
- “Rawls and Feminism: What Should Feminists Make of Liberal Neutrality?,” Journal of Moral Philosophy 1:3 (2004): 295-312. REPRINTED in The Legacy of John Rawls, ed. Thom Brooks and Fabian Freyenhagen (London: Continuum Press, 2005): 67-84.
- “Responsibility, Paternity, and the Costs of Rearing Children: Do abortion rights undermine child support obligations?” Beihefte of Archiv für Rechts- und Sozialphilosophie, (Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 2004): 211-218.
- “A Liberal Response to Catharine MacKinnon,” Southwest Philosophical Studies 22 (2000): 17-23.
- “Love’s Paradox: Hegel’s Account of Marriage,” Women’s Philosophy Review 22, Special Issue on Hegel, ed. Stella Sandford and Alison Stone (1999): 80-104.
- “Marriage, Influence and Deception in Merchant Ivory’s Adaptations of The Europeans and The Bostonians.” In Henry James on the Stage and Screen, ed. John Bradley (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2000), pp. 143-156.
- “Personhood and the Family: Hegel’s Account,” Contemporary Political Studies (Proceedings of the Political Studies Association, 1997): 365-371.
In progress and under review
- “Is Polyamory Permissible?,” for Norton Introduction to Ethics, ed. E. Harman and A. Guerrero (completed).
- “The Wrong of Stalking,” in progress.
- “Rights to Belong and Rights to Be Left Alone?: Claims to Caring Relationships and Their Limits,” for Being Social: The Philosophy of Social Human Rights, ed. Kimberley Brownlee et al., under contract with OUP.
- “Temporary Relationships,” for Neglected Relationships, ed. Monika Betzler and Jörg Löschke, under contract with OUP, in progress.
- A book manuscript on the state’s role in disaster response.
Public philosophy
- “In Texas, price gouging during disasters is illegal – it is also on very shaky ethical ground,” The Conversation, 2/24/2021; reprinted in 22 newspapers and magazines including Chicago Tribune and Houston Chronicle; over 10,000 readers.
- “Single During the Holidays Doesn’t Mean Alone and Lonely,” The Conversation, 12/20/2018, updated 2/11/2021; reprinted in 34 newspapers and magazines including The Citizen (South Africa), Houston Chronicle, Rappler (Philipines); over 30,000 readers.
- “To Make Families Good for Democracy, Broaden the Notion of Family Itself,” <http://www.zocalopublicsquare.org/2016/12/15/make-families-good-democracy-broaden-notion-family/ideas/nexus/>, December 15, 2016.
- “Freedom and Other Philosophical Themes in Dylan’s Lyrics,” The Daily Nous, <http://dailynous.com/2016/10/14/philosophers-on-bob-dylans-words-nobel-prize-win/>, October 14, 2016.
- “We May Procreate Instead of Adopting,” The Philosophers’ Magazine, October 2016.
- “Why not privatize disaster response? The political significance of unnatural disasters,” What’s Wrong?, < http://whatswrongcvsp.com/2015/09/28/why-not-privatize-disaster-response-the-political-significance-of-unnatural-disasters/>, 9/28/2015. (REPRINTED, The McGraw-Hill Guide: Writing for College, writing for Life, edited by Roen, forthcoming)
- Five-part animated lecture series on my work on marriage for Wireless Philosophy (wi-phi.com).
- “Why can’t we be (legally recognized) friends?,” theForum (LSE), <blogs.lse.ac.uk/theforum/why-cant-we-be-legally-recognized-friends/>, September 2015.
- Contributor, “Philosophers on the Supreme Court’s Gay Marriage Ruling,” Daily Nous, <http://dailynous.com/2015/06/29/philosophers-on-the-supreme-courts-gay-marriage-ruling/>, 6/29/2015. (Viewed directly almost 40,000 times within 24 hours) (REPRINTED, The McGraw-Hill Guide: Writing for College, writing for Life, edited by Roen, forthcoming)
- “Just Care: What Society Owes the Elderly.” Philosop-her, < https://politicalphilosopher.net/2015/01/11/featured-philosopher-elizabeth-brake/>, 1/16/2015.
Encyclopedia entries
- “Marriage and Domestic Partnership,” The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Edward N. Zalta (ed.), Fall 2009, updated 2012, 2016.
- “Parenthood and Procreation,” co-authored with Joseph Millum, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Edward N. Zalta (ed.), Spring 2012, updated 2016, 2021.
- “Marriage” and “Adultery,” International Encyclopedia of Ethics, ed. Hugh LaFollette, Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2013; “Marriage” updated 2019.
- “Hegel,” in Sex from Plato to Paglia: A Philosophical Encyclopedia, ed. Alan Soble (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2006): 429-435.
- “Kant,” in Sex from Plato to Paglia: A Philosophical Encyclopedia, ed. Alan Soble (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2006): 543-553.
Book reviews
- Clare Chambers, Against Marriage: An Egalitarian Defence of the Marriage-Free State (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017), in Mind, published online September 12, 2018 (https://doi.org/10.1093/mind/fzy041) [4,000-word review essay].
- Stephen Macedo, Just Married: Same-Sex Couples, Monogamy & the Future of Marriage (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2015), in Ethical Theory and Moral Practice 20(2), April 2017, pp. 443-446.
- Christine Overall, Why Have Children?, in Ethics 123:2, January 2013, pp. 391-396.
- Tamara Metz, Untying the Knot (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2010), in Philosophy in Review, Vol. 30 No. 6, 2010: 418-421.
- Rebecca Kukla, Mass Hysteria (Lanham, Maryland: Rowman and Littlefield, 2005), in Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews, November 2006.
- Robert Pippin, Henry James and Modern Moral Life (Oxford: OUP, 1999), in The Philosophical Quarterly, Vol. 52, No. 208, 2002: 397-398.
- Joram Haber and Mark Halfon, eds., Essays on the Work of Virginia Held: Norms and Values (Oxford: Rowman and Littlefield, 1998),in Hypatia 17.1, 2002: 200-203.
- Kimberly Curtis, Our Sense of the Real: Aesthetic Experience and Arendtian Politics (Ithaca: Cornell Univ. Press, 1999) and Dana Villa, Politics, Philosophy, Terror: Essays on the Thought of Hannah Arendt (Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press, 1999), in The Journal of Politics, Vol. 63 No. 2, 2001: 661-4.
- Joan Kennedy Taylor, What to Do When You Don’t Want to call the Cops (New York: NYU Press, 1999), in Reason Papers No. 25, 2000: 101-112.
- Jeffrey Gauthier, Hegel and Feminist Social Criticism (Albany: SUNY Press, 1997), Philosophy in Review, Vol. 18 No. 6, 1998: 421-422.