Almost everyone grows up in a family, and family ties play an important role in daily life. But what exactly is a 'family'? What is a 'family tie'? We use the general concept of 'family' in many contexts - in fiction, in talk shows, in law, in politics - and yet one person's family may be strikingly different from another's. This introductory guide sets out to examine the multiple meanings of the family and related concepts. It explores the different roles played by these concepts in our attempts to understand who we are, where we belong, and what we owe to whom, and the relationships between individual, family, and society. Grounded in philosophy and ethics, the book also draws extensively from other disciplines such as law and sociology, discussing the concrete implications of these ideas for issues such as parental love, marriage and divorce, family autonomy, and assisted reproduction. An excellent, philosophically rich and nonetheless accessible introduction to a wide range of important topics about the family, marriage, partnership and intimacy. Baron and Crowley start from a socially liberal political orientation and show that a commitment to social liberalism still leaves a wide range of issues about families up for the intelligent and thoughtful philosophical analysis and debate they provide in this volume.