Read Chapter 2, "Perspectives" from Love: A Very Short Introduction, but there are no questions this time. Instead, we'll do an in-class writing when you arrive in class on Wednesday (a simple one, so don't worry about reading too carefully--just try to get a general sense of the chapter). However, here are some ideas you might look out for as you read:
(don't answer these--just ideas to consider)
* How is love a social construction, even though it is a universal and instinctual experience? How does society create--through our involvement--its own rules and taboos?
* In Chapter 2, de Sousa calls love a "pathology"...how does this relate to his earlier claims that it was also a "condition" and a "syndrome"? How does Shakespeare's Sonnet 147 play into this?
* Why do you think love is a way to excuse other reprehensible forms of behavior and manners (which in another context might lead to punishment)? Why does love get a pass when other types of behavior and conditions don’t? What might this say about our understanding of what love is, and what it has to do with logic and reason?
* If love is based on reason, why don't we fall in love with anyone who satisfies our reason? In other words, if you said that you were looking for X,Y, and Z in a person, would you fall in love instantly with everyone who satisfied these criteria?
* Note how often de Sousa draws from classic literature to explore/explain love: Plato, Shakespeare, Freud, etc. Does this suggest that love is an example of life imitating art? Are we constantly trying to cosplay at art (to continue our discussion from Monday)? Is it all one giant imitation? And is this imitation an example of "sincere flattery"? Or is there something defeated and desperate in it?
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