Phenomenology of Love

Catalog description

In light of debate about the presence or absence of love in Martin Heidegger's thought, this course focuses on Heidegger's atheist inheritance of the theological analyses of love developed in Saint Augustine of Hippo. In and through this focus on the influence of a major theologian from late Antiquity in one of late-modernity's single most influential philosophers (decisive to phenomenology, hermeneutics, deconstruction, and Foucauldian genealogical thought, among others) the course serves as an introduction to twentieth-century Continental philosophy that highlights not only that philosophy's relevance to the study of religion but also the relevance of religion to engagement with such philosophy.