Philosophy of Love
What is love? Why does love hurt? What makes love good or bad, and who decides?
The aim of the course is to combine a philosophical history of love with practice in critical analytical skills to think about love as a dynamic feature of human relationships, personal and/as political. Each week we explore some of the most challenging problems and puzzles love poses to contemporary philosophy and contemporary moral life. We will ask questions about:
is love rational?
whether we (should) love for reasons or properties?
whether we have any choice in love and what existentialist theories of freedom and authenticity have to say about that?
whether anyone has a right to be loved?
the relation between love (and being loved) and identity?
and whether there are appropriate or inappropriate objects of love.
We will also focus on a number of pressing applied problems in the philosophy of love, including “erotic chem”, sex robots, sex work, sex magick, and philosophical defences of polyamory and criticisms of monogamism.