Phil of Gender, Love, Sex

3 Credits · Level: Undergraduate

The poet and short story writer Raymond Carver once wrote: “It ought to make us feel ashamed when we talk like we know what we’re talking about when we talk about love.” This may seem like an odd admonition. After all, it is often said that love is one of the things that make life worthwhile. How can we really fail to understand something most of us assume to be so important and to which we devote so much time and effort? But a little reflection suggests that love is perplexing. Sexuality is a battleground in our culture. It is often seen as the terrain where love can become perverse or unethical. Do celibates sacrifice something important? Can one love multiple romantic partners simultaneously? Is it wrong to? Should marriage be restricted to opposite-sex couples? Should it be restricted to couples at all, rather than extended to groups of three or more people? In this course, we will explore such questions in order to clarify and deepen our engagement with contemporary problems surrounding love and sexuality. Some authors whose work we will examine include Thomas Aquinas, Judith Butler, Irving Singer, Martha Nussbaum and Audre Lorde. The goal of the course is to help us become more thoughtful about the problems and possibilities of love and sexuality in our lives and our society.