Intro to Philosophy: Big Questions about Love, Friendship, and Desire
99support my work making Philosophy accessible - https://www.patreon.com/sadler
study philosophy 1-on-1 - https://reasonio.wordpress.com/tutorials/
In this portion of a session from my Fall 2013 Intro to Philosophy class at Marist College, I lead my students through some discussion of a key set of themes that are motivating the rest of the readings and discussions for the class -- issues about Love, Friendship, and Desire. We explore some of the big, thorny questions that arise when we think about or even just experience these. We also discuss how these themes fit into the traditionally distinguish areas of Philosophy, like Ethics, Metaphysics, Aesthetics, etc.
I set out four terms from Greek -- Eros, Agape, Philia, and Storge -- and discuss how these are often used in order to distinguish between different types of love. I also caution my students against thinking that what we're going to be studying -- or what they experience -- breaks down so neatly in reality. The Ancient Greeks did use these sorts of terms, but quite often the boundaries between these categories were considerably more fluid than the typograpies of 20th century interpreters make them out to be.