Love and Friendship in Philosophy and Literature

This is a course for lovers of reading who wish to read great books on the subjects of love and friendship. We will start with Plato's two famous dialogues on love, the Phaedrus, and the Symposium, to learn about love (eros) and its relationship to speaking, writing, and philosophy, and his dialogue on friendship, Lysis. Then, we will read Aristotle's Ethics, which contains the definitive treatment of friendship. We will then read: a Shakespeare Sonnet; Montaigne's essay, Of Friendship; Bacon’s essay Of Friendship; Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra and Midsummer Night’s Dream, Jane Austen’s Persuasion, and Edith Wharton’s The Age of Innocence. We will also study parts of The Trivium: The Liberal Arts of Logic, Grammar, and Rhetoric by Sister Miriam Joseph. 4 hrs. sem.