to
THE PHILOSOPHY OF LOVE PAGE
(in development)
Standing in the Tragic Gap, audio by Parker Palmer
BOOKS, WRITERS, PHILOSOPHERS ON LOVE
- Jacques Derrida on Love and Being (video)
- Fromm, Erich. The Art of Loving. Here's a short video interview with Fromm on his To Have or To Be. Here's another You-Tube presentation with Fromm's voice on the topic of dependency in love. Here's a You-Tube tribute to Erich Fromm.
- J. Krishnamurti (1895-1986). On Love and Loneliness.
- Plato (428-348 BCE). The Symposium. | The Phaedrus.
DEFINITIONS ONLINE: The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy || The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
FOUNDATIONS, INSTITUTES, and ORGANIZATIONS ON LOVE: Altruism (Humboldt State University, California) || Fetzer Institute - Fetzer Campaign for Love and Forgiveness || Infinity Foundation || The Institute for Research on Unlimited Love (sample course: The Philosophy, Science, and Service of Love) || UC Berkeley Center for the Development of Peace and Well-Being
MEDIA ON LOVE: The Mystery of Love, a PBS Special (Website, with video and audio), a PBS Special - From Love Stories: Platonic Love (audio)
MYSTICISM:
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Ibn 'Arabi ("the movement which is the existence of the universe is the movement of love") | I believe in the religion / Of love / Whatever direction its caravans may take, / For love is my religion and my faith
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Rumi: The minute I heared my first love story, / I started looking for you, not knowing / how blind that was. / / Lovers don't finally meet somewhere, / they're in each other all along." (trans. Coleman Barker)
UNIVERSITY and INSTITUTE COURSES IN THE PHILOSOPHY OF LOVE.
- MIT Linguistics and Philosophy 24: Philosophy of Love in the Western World (Professor Irving Singer). "This course is a seminar on the nature of love and sex, approached as topics both in philosophy and in literature. Readings from recent philosophy as well as classic myths of love that occur in works of literature and lend themselves to philosophical analysis."
- The Philosophy, Science, and Service of Love (Institute for Research on Unlimited Love)
Weblinks to specific courses come and go. Here are some statements related to courses that were previously accessible. Mr. Gregory's University of Virginia Philosophy 162 (Philosophy of Love and Sex) provided this:
The word 'love," is a part of our everyday vocabulary, but what does a declaration of love mean (philosophically) and entail (ethically)? The Philosophy of Love and Sex examines the treatment of the concepts of love and sex by historical and contemporary philosophers (e.g., Plato, Aristotle, Hildegard of Bingen, Schopenhauer, Kierkegaard, Sartre, DeBeauvoir, Foucault, Nussbaum, Feinberg, Vlastos, Nagel). It asks, whether the concept of love concerns meta-physics, ethics, or both. What expectations follow from the claim 'I love...?' What is self-love? The course will also tackle ethical questions that derive from sexual involvements such as perversions, pornography, adultery, etc. (Mr. Gregory's University of Virginia Philosophy 162,Philosophy of Love and Sex)
In this course we will approach the topic of romantic love in a philosophical manner. Some questions we will consider are as follows: Is romantic love a cultural invention or a natural phenomenon? How does romantic love differ from other kinds of love (e.g. friendship and familial love)? Does one have a choice regarding whether or not to love? Can one give reasons for why one loves? What makes love last (does love alter when it alteration finds)? What is the connection between sex and love? (Professor Merino's University of Washington. Philosophy 200A: Topics in Philosophy—the Philosophy of Love used the text Love: Emotion, Myth, and Metaphor by Robert C. Solomon).
Arthur C. Danto remarks “how incorrigibly stiff philosophy is when it undertakes to lay its icy fingers on the frilled and beating wings of the butterfly of love.” There is something both true and false in this remark. The philosopher cannot, as the poet can, convey the particularities of a love lived, suffered, and enjoyed, but romantic love and friendship are an aspect of practical moral lives and in this respect, a proper object of philosophical concern. This course brings together some of the most lively and passionate writings by philosophers on the topic of romantic love and friendship. Students consider various definitions and descriptions of love and friendship from Plato to Freud. Also examined is the connection between morality and love, and love and the political, through reading the writings of philosophers such as Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Kant, Marcuse, and de Beauvouir. (Professor Paul Voice's Bennington College: The Philosophy of Love and Friendship)
Western culture is immersed in talk of “Love”—is this empty chatter? The word love is certainly a candidate for the most discussed and least understood concept. But does our chronic inability to articulate the meaning of love indicate a lack of knowledge? Or is love perhaps one of a handful of special words that denote something real yet ineffable. // This course will look closely at two different types of Love in the Western Tradition as differentiated by the Greeks. First, we will survey the historical changes of what is meant by Eros (i.e., Erotic Love, the sexual love between persons) beginning with its Platonic conception. Second, we will look at the concept of Agape (i.e., the love of God, charity, “Christian Love”). Here we will focus on a particular view of this concept as given by Søren Kierkegaard. (Professor Bruce Howes's Brock University Philosophy 2P92. The Philosophy of Love).
Various aspects of love—romantic, spiritual, familial, and self-acceptance—are studied through readings, films, and weekly contemplations. Course moves from concepts and readings to the student's own experience and personal application. Self-love and self-esteem are the foundation concept from which all else evolves. Readings come from philosophical and spiritual texts. (Standard catalog description from Columbia College Chicago. Philosophy 51: The Philosophy of Love)
Loving and being loved are essential to a flourishing human life. Love comes in many varieties--parental love, filial devotion, fraternal attachment, friendship, eros, charity, etc.—but we say that all of these are forms of "love". What is this thing, love, which they all have in common? What general properties does it have? Is there a duty to love every human being? We will look in detail at two forms of love, friendship and erotic love, while keeping an eye on the general question of what love is. What is friendship? Are there qualities that our friends have, such as virtue, intelligence or usefulness to us, which are the reason for their being our friends? Is there a difference between reasons for entering into a friendship and reasons for continuing in a friendship once entered into? Should we, or could we, be friends with every human being? Is friendship an expression of need or weakness, or is it something divine? After the first part of the course on love and friendship in general, the second will be on sexual or erotic love. This, all agree, is tied in some way to sex. What is sex? Is sex a good thing? What makes something be a sexual act? What connection is there between sex and love? Between sex and commitment? What is marriage and what is it for? Is there such a thing as perversion and if so, what is it? Are there some consensual sexual acts that are always wrong? More concretely: What is the morality of homosexual acts, contraception, masturbation, bestiality, pornography or standard heterosexual intercourse? Hopefully, we will see that specific questions about sexual morality are closely connected with the general issues about the nature of love. We will look at a number of different accounts of issues in sexual morality, ranging from the thought of contemporary feminist theorists like Andrea Dworkin to that of Pope John Paul II, and including classic texts of St. Thomas Aquinas and Immanuel Kant. (Professor Pruss's Georgetown University Philosophy 145-10. Philosophy of Love and Sex)
Gloria Floren, Letters
Department, MiraCosta College, One Barnard Drive, Oceanside, California
92056. U.S.A.
E-mail: ENGL201GF@miracosta.edu
This Page Created 20 August 2005.
Revised 12 January 2008
Contents Copyright 2005-6
Gloria L. Floren. All rights reserved
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