Philosophy of Love & Pleaure

[owl_of_minerva]

A non f-locked post, just for fun.

This summer I'm teaching an introductory freshman course on philosophy; it's a required core course, so I have a lot of non-majors. I've taught this course a number of times before, and I've decided to totally revamp the syllabus. Instead of focusing on the nature of the soul & freedom, I'm going to focus on love & pleasure.

So far, I have the following (mostly in excerpts): Plato, Phaedrus and Symposium; some Biblical bits from OT & NT; Augustine in excerpt (any specific recommendations are good!) ; Aquinas in excerpt on the nature of love & friendship (already know which bits I'll use); Descartes in excerpt from Passions of the Soul; a little Freud (from Civilization & its Discontents?); Kierkegaard excerpts from Diary of a Seducer and Works of Love.  Anything obvious I'm leaving out?  Any further suggestions?   Keep in mind this is a very very very intro-level course, and since it's only over 5 weeks, students don't have that much time to absorb.   Given the heavy Christian emphasis (which is inevitable given I'm required to include medieval philosophy), any commentary on love from non-Christian sources would be great, too. Is there any Buddhist stuff on love or pleasure that would be fun?

Comments

[eve-prime.livejournal.com]

I've never read de Beauvoir, but I think I ought to. It looks like she's interested in sexual love as a context for authenticity and overcoming the estrangement between self and other. This overview of her work has lots of interesting leads. I like the phrase "the truth of the erotic event," though I doubt it would go over well if you had your students reading her intro to de Sade's Justine. Maybe something from The Second Sex?

[owl-of-minerva.livejournal.com]

Given that this is a very introductory course, and probably the first college-level course any of them will have had (I even had a high school student in my class last year, when I taught this section), I'm steering away from anything overly erotic. (Though I am tempted have them read Szymborska's "On the question of pornography" (http://www.filg.uj.edu.pl/ifa/przeklad/przeklad2/poezja2.html))

Hrm. Times like these I wish I knew Irigaray better. But again, very intro class. Clarity is all-important.

[eve-prime.livejournal.com]

I do think the perspective of physical love having value is worth including, and de Beauvoir just because she's someone new students should have some acquaintance with. Too bad I'm not actually familiar with her work so I could recommend something specific and tame!

Good poem!

[owl-of-minerva.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I agree with you on both counts (and I usually teach parts of the introduction to The Second Sex in this course, actually). It's just that if we spend time on physical love in the class, I want it to be as crystal clear as possible, so that students aren't mystified & I don't run into any unfortunate misunderstandings.

(Freshmen are capable of very bizarre thought processes)

[eve-prime.livejournal.com]

Unfortunate misunderstandings are bad.