Love and Friendship

What do we talk about when we talk about love? This course poses this question in various ways. How, for instance, can we tell the difference between love's various forms—between love that is friendly and love that is romantic? How do the different forms of love differently shape people? How does love work when it involves sex, or marriage, or children, or divinity? And what must love involve to be called “good”? Why? Materials will range from Plato and St. Augustine to Leo Bersani and Allen Bloom and will also include popular filmic representations of love. Limited to 19.