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

[phronesis.livejournal.com]

I'm surprised you aren't including Aristotle's Ethics Book 8. Also if you are going to be reading Kierkegaard including Schlegel's Lucinda could be fun.

[owl-of-minerva.livejournal.com]

They will get their Aristotle in the sophomore core.

Indeed, it would be fantastic to include Lucinde. I <3 Schegel. Sadly, this is only a month-long core course, for freshmen, so there is a limit to what can be done.

I worry that the course packet is already too long. I excised Diary of a Seducer, but left in the section from Works of Love on mourning the dead.

Are you studying Kierkegaard? A bunch of my friends are at the Kierkegaard library at St Olaf's this summer.