Ending a Romantic Partnership: Towards an Ethics of Divorce
THIS TALK HAS BEEN CANCELLED. WE HOPE TO RESCHEDULE FOR LATER IN THE YEAR.
Romantic partnerships are typically among the most important goods in our lives. But romance sometimes ends, and often so too does the relationship. It is amply corroborated by empirical research that in undergoing divorce we are particularly vulnerable to being wronged and harmed.

In this paper, my aim is to examine what partners owe to each other in ending their partnership. After providing some necessary clarifications I show why the possibility of divorce is necessary to realize the value of romantic partnerships, before highlighting the distinct wrongs and harms to which the divorcee is vulnerable. I explore the status, ground, and content of the duties that the divorcer has with regard to the divorcee, and confront various objections to bolster my claim that the divorcer has special residual duties with regard to the divorcee to avoid those wrongs and partly mitigate the harms incurred on the divorcee. These duties are grounded in the value that the particular partnership once had for both parties involved. I will finally discuss some objections and possibly paradoxical implications of my view.
Date: 6 July 2022, 16:00 (Wednesday, 11th week, Trinity 2022)
Venue: Radcliffe Humanities, Woodstock Road OX2 6GG
Venue Details: Lecture Room, Faculty of Philosophy
Speaker: Professor Monika Betzler (LMU Munich)
Organising department: Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics
Organiser: Dr Maximilian Kiener (University of Oxford)
Host: Dr Maximilian Kiener (University of Oxford)
Booking required?: Required
Booking url: https://www.practicalethics.ox.ac.uk/event/ending-romantic-partnership-towards-ethics-divorce
Audience: Public
Editor: Rachel Gaminiratne