Syllabus
1) 17.2: Intro. Legitimacy of self-hate? Pascal (starter) 2) 24.2: Aristotle.
The magnanimous (EN, IV.3) 3) 3.3: Aristotle. Normativity of Self-love (EN VII, IX: classification of philia, autophilia) 4) 10.3: Aristotle’s synthesis.
Back to Pascal? 5) 17.3: Augustine: the distinction between uti and frui (De doctrina christiana I) 6) 24.3: Duns Scotus, in the wake of Augustine 7) 31.3: Erasmus and Montaigne. On vanity and self-consideration 8) 7.4: Descartes’ generosity.
The right amount of love (Passions, III) 9) 14.4: Pascal and the hate of one’s self (Pensées) 10) 21.4: Port-Royalists’ veto about the self (Logic of P-R) 11) 28.4: Hobbes: individuals and society (Leviathan) 12) 5.5: Self-love as love of one’s own body. Narcissism (Freud, Introduction to Narcissism, Lessons on psychanalysis)
Annotation
SPRING TERM 2021
MA module e-mail me for consultation or questions: anna.tropia@ff.cuni.cz
Despite it is nowadays rather common to hear instructions like “you should be kinder to yourself”, or “you should love yourself more”, there is a solid philosophical tradition limiting and prescribing what is the right amount of love human beings owe to themselves. From Aristotle to Freud, passing through Pascal’s famous claim “the self is hateful”, diverse perspectives—theological, philosophical, literary, linguistic and psychological—will be explored in order to determine on the one hand what are the dangers arising from excessive self-love and, on the other, if it is possible to completely cancel such form of love.
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