Scribner Seminar Program
Course Description
Politics & Eros: On Love, Affection, and Community
Instructor(s): Natalie Taylor, Political Science
What is love? What and whom do we love? To what ends are our erotic longings to be cultivated? How ought they to be cultivated? And what is the role of the community in relation to these erotic longings? These are the questions animating this course, Politics & Eros: On Love, Affection, and Community. We will seek to discover the nature and object(s) of our erotic longings, as well as the manner of and proper setting for their cultivation.
Human flourishing seems to require that we be friends and lovers鈥攖hat is, our very humanity seems constituted by the experiential goods of love and friendship. The greatest minds have recognized this and devoted their attention to why and how our capacities for affection ought to be cultivated. Our investigations will take us from Plato鈥檚 philosophical reflections, to Shakespeare鈥檚 comedies, to the novels of Jane Austen, to the films of Whit Stillman.
Course Offered: