For Thursday's class, please read Chapter 3 "Desire" from Love: A Very Short Introduction. I won't give you any questions this time, but we will do a short in-class writing when you arrive in class. Here are some ideas to guide you, any one of which I might pull from in our writing:
* What is "operant conditioning" and how does it play into Sonnet 129?
* de Sousa quotes the comedian Groucho Marx who said, "I would never join any club that would have me as a member." How does this sentiment pervade many of Shakepseare's Sonnets? Which ones?
* How does the concept of "reward" help perpetuate the cycle of desire and pleasure? If you got rewarded at the end of a pursuit, why would the cycle repeat just as strong as before? Would reward necessarily end the cycle?
* What is the "altruist's dilemma," and why might that play into the experience of "lying" in Shakespeare's Sonnet 138?
* Related to the above, why would a Court of Love in 1176 rule that love is incompatible in marriage? What does marriage--or any kind of formal union--abolish that is essential (they would argue) to the true condition of love and romance?
* According to de Sousa, why is love like stepping on a nail? How are love and pain similar concepts? In other words, why are causes and reasons completely different concepts that we often conflate? Why according to de Sousa is love necessarily "reason-free"?
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