This seminar investigates into some foundational questions about love. The first set of questions concerns the nature of love. For example, is love a feeling or a felt impulse/urge? Or is it rather a standing mental state, just like desire or emotion? If so, what is it that sets love apart from other kinds of emotion and desire?
The second set of questions concerns the normativity of love. The central question is whether love is something which can be justified or unjustified, or something for which there can be reasons. Some philosophers think that love is fundamentally arational, on the grounds that it is something that just happens to us or something we simply „fall in“. However, there are many others who think that there can be reasons for and against loving someone, which can derive from the person’s qualities, the relationship we stand in with the person, and so on.
Finally, there are questions that broadly concern the ethics and the value of love. For example, what is the central value (if any) that love has for our lives? Could there be a duty to love (or not to love) someone?
This seminar will be taught in English and will consist mainly in the discussion of the assigned readings. Active engagement with the texts and participation in class will be essential. |
