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Love is both a ubiquitous and elusive concept – we are surrounded by references to love in culture and in daily life but tend to find it difficult to pin down a full definition or meaning of the word ‘love’. Love is also one of the most existentially significant threads of our lives – our desire to be loved, to love others well and to grow in our capacity to love are things that touch us to the core and shape the meaning of our lives. In the Christian tradition love is of theological significance, promising insight into the nature of God.
In this course participants will have the opportunity to look at the phenomenon of love from different angles, in dialogue with philosophers such as Plato, Aristotle, Nietzsche, Levinas, Murdoch and others. We will look at the nature of love through the framework of ‘the four loves’ – the Greek terms eros, agape, philia and storge offering a lens for looking at some of the different dimensions of love. Those taking this course should expect to explore and enrich their concept of love in a way that connects the philosophical tradition to lived experience.
In our first session we look at eros – understood in the philosophical tradition as the desire for the good. We will look at how eros is conceptualised in Plato’s Symposium, and different interpretations of this founding text. We will look at Anders Nygren’s critique and Iris Murdoch’s affirmation of eros respectively.
Plato, Symposium, 199c-212c
https://web.education.wisc.edu/halverson/wp-content/uploads/sites/33/2012/12/Symposium.pdf
In this session we look at agape – the form of love concerned with serving the good of another. We will look at the founding significance of agape in the New Testament and the Christian tradition. We will consider Friedrich Nietzsche’s critique of agape and Max Scheler’s response.
Benedict XVI, Deus Caritas Est, Part I:
In this session, we will look at the nature of philia – attending to the characteristic features of friendship as a type of love. We will consider and think critically about Aristotle’s famous categorisation of three types of friendship.
The Kindness of God Friendship
In this session we will look at storge – our instinctive affection for familiar people, places and things. This is the least discussed type of love in the literature and we will consider why this might be. We will examine and think critically about C.S. Lewis’ treatment of storge in his book The Four Loves.
C.S Lewis, 'Affection' in TheFour Loves, Chapter 3.
In this session we will look at the nature of interpersonal relations as ‘second-personal’ and consider the significance of this in understanding different types and approaches to love. We will consider the different perspectives of Martin Buber, Jean-Paul Sartre and Emmanuel Levinas.
Sophie Grace Chappell, ‘Friendship, Love and Second-Personality’ in A Philosopher Looks at Friendship, Chapter10.
Slides
Readings
Sarah Pawlett Jackson is Tutor in Religion, Philosophy and Ethics at the University of London, and a Visiting Lecturer at the University of Roehampton. She has lectured and tutored at a number of Higher Education Institutions, including Heythrop College, Oxford University Department for Continuing Education, and St Mellitus College. Her primary research interests in intersubjectivity, social cognition, phenomenology, ethics and philosophy of religion.
