Politics of Love

Catalog description

In this course, we will be exploring the relationship between politics and love. At first blush, politics does not seem to be “lovely.” On closer examination, however, love is found to be an inextricable part of politics. When speaking about politics, we often discuss love of country, honor, freedom, justice, power, glory, victory, and one’s own tribe, people, and opinion. How does love mix together with politics? Which, if any, is the most important of loves? Does it depend on the regime? What is the best regime? To answer these questions we will need to know more about love itself. What is it? How and why is it connected to politics? Does love shape our ideas of politics? Do our political ideas shape our ideas about love? Both? Is love inherently political? What is the relationship between romantic love and politics? In our quest to gain clarity on these questions, we will examine some of the most serious considerations of the relationship between politics and love in the study of political philosophy.