Preparing the way for a further redefinition of marriage to include polygamy

Polygamy and Human Dignity

by Carson Holloway

The normalization of polygamy would undermine our commitment to human dignity—our sense that each human being is to be valued as an end in him- or herself, and not merely as a means to others’ ends.

Conservatives have long warned that the redefinition of marriage sought by the proponents of same-sex unions will prepare the way for a further redefinition of marriage to include polygamy. Some liberals have already done their part to fulfill this prophecy by assuming that the argument over same-sex marriage is over and by beginning to argue for a normalization of plural marriages. As I have recently argued here at Public Discourse, I do not agree that the argument over same-sex marriage is or should be over. Nevertheless, because some liberals have started to defend polygamy, conservatives who want to preserve our moral inheritance need to think through what kind of arguments caution against this further step.

Defenders of conjugal marriage confront a problem here, because it seems harder to make a principled argument against polygamy than against same-sex marriage. The principled argument against same-sex marriage holds that marriage by its nature is ordered toward procreation. Since this cannot be said of same-sex unions, the argument runs, it makes no sense to recognize them as marriages. This argument is not available—or is not so easily available—in opposition to polygamous marriages. After all, to the extent that such marriages are heterosexual, they can be naturally ordered toward procreation.

Without denying the possibility of a strong principled argument against polygamy—an argument based, say, in the nature of human sexuality and its natural purposes—I would like here to venture a prudential argument against it.

A Prudential Argument Against Polygamy

The normalization of polygamy would undermine our commitment to human dignity, our sense that each human being is to be valued as an end in him- or herself, and not merely as a means to other people’s ends. This commitment to human dignity, however, is a cornerstone of our civilization. If I am correct, we cannot embrace polygamy without imperiling something that both the left and the right agree makes our civilization worthy of admiration, something that both intend to preserve, but that might be diminished or lost through a careless manipulation of fundamental institutions such as marriage and the family.

We may begin with the simple observation that, historically, polygamous societies have not been noted for their respect for human dignity. Of course, correlation does not prove causation, and such societies’ lack of sensitivity to human dignity, as it is understood in the modern West, may have other causes. Most obviously, polygamous societies have tended to be pre-modern societies, and even monogamous pre-modern societies fell short of the respect for human dignity that we expect today.

We are therefore led to wonder whether there is some argument showing that polygamy is necessarily in tension with human dignity, so that if polygamy were to become common, we could reasonably expect it to erode our commitment to human dignity. What follows is a sketch of such an argument.

A polygamous society is much more likely to see men with multiple wives (polygyny) than women with many husbands (polyandry). Experience teaches—and the experience is confirmed by evolutionary accounts of human nature—that men are more inclined to sexual promiscuity than women and that women are more inclined than men to seek a lasting and stable sexual partnership. While some rare social conditions might foster polyandry, and while a few people might choose it in ordinary circumstances, we must expect that where polygamy is permitted, the natural inclinations of men and women will generate polygyny as the general, aggregate effect.

One further consequence of such a society is that some men will not be able to find wives. Since forming a household costs resources, and since a household with more spouses will cost more resources, polygamy will tend to benefit rich men, who will be able to afford to take many wives, and disadvantage poorer men, who will therefore not be able to find any wives at all.

Contemporary liberals profess themselves to be concerned with growing income inequality. If they are tempted to endorse polygamy, they should consider whether it does not foster an even more egregious form of inequality—one in which wealthy men have greater access than poorer men to a basic human good such as marriage and family. They might then ask themselves whether consenting to such a social arrangement does not already begin to undermine our commitment to the equal dignity of human beings as such.

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