Philosophy Department

Love, Care, Self, and Autonomy
(PHLU 3972)

John Davenport

This new course will focus on recent work in moral psychology concerning the nature of various kinds of love, from eros and romantic love to friendship and agapic love. We will connect this with discussions of “caring” and forms of commitment to relationships, roles, long-term projects, and life-goals that define a person’s “practical identity.” There are five hard questions to be answered: (1) how can our loves and cares define our “self,” or who we are in a practical sense, if their sources lie outside our control; in other words, can loving be autonomous? (2) Are the emotions involved in loving people or caring about issues, causes, and ideals responsive to good reasons for loving and caring, or are they determined by contingencies of our history, aptitudes, temperament and brute preferences that are not responsive to rational deliberation?  (3) Can the will, including higher-order volitions concerning what motives we act on, help us shape and become responsible for our own character?  (4) And if the will does play a role, then how do we decide what goals to pursue, which commitments to makes to persons and projects, and when to stick to them and when to revise them?  In particular, can ethical consideration inform these deeply personal aspects of our lives?  (5) Finally, how does all this add up to a meaningful life? Does it make sense to distinguish more and less meaningful pursuits, activities, and loves?  The course readings will be interdisciplinary, drawing on Harry Frankfurt’s work on love and care and critiques of Frankfurt. We will discuss several fascinating articles on love and caring, two works on meaning in life, and some literature from contemporary psychology on personality type and so-called “intrinsic motivation.”  Examples from popular literature will also be used in connection with recent work on emotions. This course does not require a background beyond the core courses in Human Nature and Ethics, and majors in other fields (such as Psychology or English) are encouraged to attend.

Demeter finds Persephone in the Underworld