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PHM 3020 Philosophy of Love

PHM 3020 Philosophy of Love. Michael Strawser strawser@mail.ucf.edu. The Lack of Love. According to Kierkegaard, “love is our greatest need,” and yet the philosophy of love has been lacking in our universities and departments of philosophy

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PHM 3020 Philosophy of Love

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  1. PHM 3020 Philosophy of Love Michael Strawser strawser@mail.ucf.edu

  2. The Lack of Love • According to Kierkegaard, “love is our greatest need,” and yet the philosophy of love has been lacking in our universities and departments of philosophy • Isn’t it ironic for philosophers, “lovers of wisdom,” not to devote their sustained reflections to love, not to love love?

  3. The Lack of Love • Consider these views: • Irving Singer: “In the last 60 years or so the analysis of love has been neglected more than almost any other subject in philosophy” (The Nature of Love, 1966, ix). • Jean-Luc Marion: “The Silence of Love” (The Erotic Phenomenon, 2007, 1,3) • bell hooks: “the world of the present [is] no longer a world open to love…lovelessness [has] become the order of the day” (All about Love, 2000, x).

  4. The Lack of Love • This course can then be seen as addressing the lack of love. • How exciting!

  5. Questions • Please write, no names • 1. What is the philosophy of love? • 2. What are your expectations for this course? • 3. Do you agree that philosophy does not love love? Why or why not?

  6. The Course Syllabus • http://pegasus.cc.ucf.edu/~strawser/

  7. The Irony of Love • I don’t know what love is. I feel inadequate and embarrassed (“we are embarrassed by love” Diane Ackerman, A Natural History of Love, 1994). • There is support in Singer (Philosophy of Love, xvi) • …who also makes “no pretensions about definitive objectivity” (xiii).

  8. The Irony of Love • And support in Kierkegaard, who writes that love is “essentially inexhaustible and essentially indescribable” (Author’s Preface, Works of Love). • The meaning of love (its essence) is beyond words (the phenomena). • Consequently, this is a course not about love, but about the philosophy of love.

  9. The Philosophy of Love • Critical analysis of philosophical texts dealing with love. Thus we are concerned with a particular historical tradition. • A questioning of the meaning of love. • An experience of the profound visions of philosophers who have valued love as central to their philosophies. • The philosophy of love can be distinguished from the philosophy of sex and the psychology of love.

  10. The Edification of Love • Perhaps you’re wondering: “Isn’t what you intend by ‘the irony of love’ a cop out?” • Can one be serious about “the irony of love.” • Perhaps this negative movement can lead to the positive view that love is present and that “love edifies” (I Corinthians 8:1), that is builds up, makes us grow, transforms us into better beings. • The edification of love lies also at the center of this course on the philosophy of love.

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