PHIL 111 - Philosophy of Love

3 credits

This course provides an introduction to the philosophy of love by considering six fundamental and general ways to look at love: erotic love, love of God, romantic love, moral love, love a power, and mutual love. These six approaches will be critically examined with the help of a variety of Western thinkers from various time periods such as Sappho, Plato, Aristotle, Augustine, Hobbes, Kant, Kierkegaard, Freud, Sartre, de Beauvoir, Firestone, Scruton, Nussbaum, and Irigaray. The course aims to put us in a better position to understand the nature of love and how it relates to a wide spectrum of topics including friendship, sex, morality, religion, truth, selfhood, science, and politics. It aims to help us grasp various troubling things closely associated with love and/or its denial such as sexism, racism, sadism, masochism, hate, and death.

Pre or Corequisites: Successful completion of prerequisite course ENG 92 - Writing for College 2 or ESL 122 - Introduction to Academic Writing 2, or appropriate course placement. Alternatively, students may take this course if they have completed ENG 101 - Writing and Research or are taking it as a corequisite.