M. Jamie Ferreira
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780195130256
- eISBN:
- 9780199834181
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195130251.003.0004
- Subject:
- Religion, Philosophy of Religion
The sharp distinction between preferential love (erotic love and friendship) and love of one's neighbor (agape) is mitigated by the claim that neighbor‐love should be preserved in erotic love and ...
More
The sharp distinction between preferential love (erotic love and friendship) and love of one's neighbor (agape) is mitigated by the claim that neighbor‐love should be preserved in erotic love and friendship. Neighbor‐love is a commitment to equality, which involves a kind of moral blindness, and is best understood, in comparison with the ethics of Emmanuel Levinas, as responsibility to others.Less
The sharp distinction between preferential love (erotic love and friendship) and love of one's neighbor (agape) is mitigated by the claim that neighbor‐love should be preserved in erotic love and friendship. Neighbor‐love is a commitment to equality, which involves a kind of moral blindness, and is best understood, in comparison with the ethics of Emmanuel Levinas, as responsibility to others.
Roger Scruton
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195166910
- eISBN:
- 9780199863938
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195166910.001.0001
- Subject:
- Music, Opera
A tale of forbidden love and inevitable death, the medieval legend of Tristan und Isolde recounts the story of two lovers unknowingly drinking a magic potion and ultimately dying in one another's ...
More
A tale of forbidden love and inevitable death, the medieval legend of Tristan und Isolde recounts the story of two lovers unknowingly drinking a magic potion and ultimately dying in one another's arms. While critics have lauded Wagner's Tristan und Isolde for the originality and subtlety of the music, they have denounced the drama as a “mere trifle”—a rendering of Wagner's forbidden love for Matilde Wesendonck, the wife of a banker who supported him during his exile in Switzerland. The book explodes this established interpretation, proving the drama to be more than just a sublimation of the composer's love for Wesendonck or a wistful romantic dream. It attests that Tristan and Isolde has profound religious meaning and remains as relevant today as it was to Wagner's contemporaries, offering also a keen insight into the nature of erotic love, the sacred qualities of human passion, and the peculiar place of the erotic in our culture. It is an argument which touches on the nature of tragedy, the significance of ritual sacrifice, and the meaning of redemption, providing a fresh interpretation of Wagner's masterpiece. This account of Wagner's music drama blends philosophy, criticism, and musicology in order to show the work's importance in the 21st century.Less
A tale of forbidden love and inevitable death, the medieval legend of Tristan und Isolde recounts the story of two lovers unknowingly drinking a magic potion and ultimately dying in one another's arms. While critics have lauded Wagner's Tristan und Isolde for the originality and subtlety of the music, they have denounced the drama as a “mere trifle”—a rendering of Wagner's forbidden love for Matilde Wesendonck, the wife of a banker who supported him during his exile in Switzerland. The book explodes this established interpretation, proving the drama to be more than just a sublimation of the composer's love for Wesendonck or a wistful romantic dream. It attests that Tristan and Isolde has profound religious meaning and remains as relevant today as it was to Wagner's contemporaries, offering also a keen insight into the nature of erotic love, the sacred qualities of human passion, and the peculiar place of the erotic in our culture. It is an argument which touches on the nature of tragedy, the significance of ritual sacrifice, and the meaning of redemption, providing a fresh interpretation of Wagner's masterpiece. This account of Wagner's music drama blends philosophy, criticism, and musicology in order to show the work's importance in the 21st century.
ROGER SCRUTON
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195166910
- eISBN:
- 9780199863938
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195166910.003.0005
- Subject:
- Music, Opera
This chapter argues that in Tristan und Isolde Wagner wished to reawaken in us the knowledge that the erotic is fundamental to the human condition, an aspect of our freedom, and an avenue to ...
More
This chapter argues that in Tristan und Isolde Wagner wished to reawaken in us the knowledge that the erotic is fundamental to the human condition, an aspect of our freedom, and an avenue to redemption. The structure of his drama is dictated by this goal: the lovers are cut off from marriage; and already, at the outset of the drama, it is too late for renunciation. All they can do is confront the sacred moment, to acknowledge that their love must find its goal and its vindication here and now or not at all. In confronting the moment, they prepare themselves for death.Less
This chapter argues that in Tristan und Isolde Wagner wished to reawaken in us the knowledge that the erotic is fundamental to the human condition, an aspect of our freedom, and an avenue to redemption. The structure of his drama is dictated by this goal: the lovers are cut off from marriage; and already, at the outset of the drama, it is too late for renunciation. All they can do is confront the sacred moment, to acknowledge that their love must find its goal and its vindication here and now or not at all. In confronting the moment, they prepare themselves for death.
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- March 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226811383
- eISBN:
- 9780226811376
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226811376.003.0009
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Ethical Issues and Debates
This chapter draws on recent reinterpretations of Plato's Symposium to argue for a contemporary critical reappropriation of Platonic erotic love of less powerful persons, minus its androcentrism and ...
More
This chapter draws on recent reinterpretations of Plato's Symposium to argue for a contemporary critical reappropriation of Platonic erotic love of less powerful persons, minus its androcentrism and its era's sexualization of inequality and of eroticism. It theologically elaborates the reflections on desire, sin, and grace. Moreover, it addresses the contemporary recoveries of Plato's Symposium and the account of desire that has affected so much of Western thought, Christian and secular. The Symposium was nothing if not an illustration of the seduction that wise, self-possessed men work on younger men in pursuit of knowledge or pleasure. It formulated a vision of ideal erotic love from the point of view of the lover. Edward Vacek believed that hope in the genuine affirmation that comes from being loved back is normally a part of the motivation. Vacek overcame the Platonic dualism that produces a barrier between physical and spiritual eros.Less
This chapter draws on recent reinterpretations of Plato's Symposium to argue for a contemporary critical reappropriation of Platonic erotic love of less powerful persons, minus its androcentrism and its era's sexualization of inequality and of eroticism. It theologically elaborates the reflections on desire, sin, and grace. Moreover, it addresses the contemporary recoveries of Plato's Symposium and the account of desire that has affected so much of Western thought, Christian and secular. The Symposium was nothing if not an illustration of the seduction that wise, self-possessed men work on younger men in pursuit of knowledge or pleasure. It formulated a vision of ideal erotic love from the point of view of the lover. Edward Vacek believed that hope in the genuine affirmation that comes from being loved back is normally a part of the motivation. Vacek overcame the Platonic dualism that produces a barrier between physical and spiritual eros.
Linnell Secomb
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748623679
- eISBN:
- 9780748671854
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748623679.003.0005
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Political Philosophy
This chapter explores Emmanuel Levinas' ethics of love along with a reading of Marguerite Duras' Hiroshima, mon amour. Hiroshima, mon amour affixes Levinas' ethics. Levinas recognizes the ...
More
This chapter explores Emmanuel Levinas' ethics of love along with a reading of Marguerite Duras' Hiroshima, mon amour. Hiroshima, mon amour affixes Levinas' ethics. Levinas recognizes the significance of erotic love for the subject and ultimately for inter-human relations. His description of erotic love indicates an interlacing of egoistic pleasure and selfless engagement with the other in the sexual relation. In Alain Resnais' and Duras' film, Hiroshima, mon amour, it is the experience of passionate, obsessional, devoted love for a particular other that grounds and informs the selfless ethical love of every other. It has become clear that the feminine other of the erotic relation (in Time and the Other) offers a model or a prototype for the alterity of the other of the ethical relation (in Totality and Infinity).Less
This chapter explores Emmanuel Levinas' ethics of love along with a reading of Marguerite Duras' Hiroshima, mon amour. Hiroshima, mon amour affixes Levinas' ethics. Levinas recognizes the significance of erotic love for the subject and ultimately for inter-human relations. His description of erotic love indicates an interlacing of egoistic pleasure and selfless engagement with the other in the sexual relation. In Alain Resnais' and Duras' film, Hiroshima, mon amour, it is the experience of passionate, obsessional, devoted love for a particular other that grounds and informs the selfless ethical love of every other. It has become clear that the feminine other of the erotic relation (in Time and the Other) offers a model or a prototype for the alterity of the other of the ethical relation (in Totality and Infinity).
Robert C. Solomon
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780195134674
- eISBN:
- 9780199833733
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195134672.003.0003
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Philosophy of Religion
Spirituality requires passion and engages the emotions. However, emotions are not dumb feelings. They are or can be insightful, caring engagements with the world. Love, erotic love, lies at the heart ...
More
Spirituality requires passion and engages the emotions. However, emotions are not dumb feelings. They are or can be insightful, caring engagements with the world. Love, erotic love, lies at the heart of spirituality and serves as a secular model. Reverence, which is more than respect but less than worship, is an ancient virtue that brings together many of the passions of spirituality.Less
Spirituality requires passion and engages the emotions. However, emotions are not dumb feelings. They are or can be insightful, caring engagements with the world. Love, erotic love, lies at the heart of spirituality and serves as a secular model. Reverence, which is more than respect but less than worship, is an ancient virtue that brings together many of the passions of spirituality.
Alvin Plantinga
- Published in print:
- 2000
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780195131932
- eISBN:
- 9780199867486
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195131932.003.0009
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Philosophy of Religion
According to the model I proposed in Ch. 8, Christian belief is produced in the believer by the internal instigation of the Holy Spirit; the result of this work of the Holy Spirit is faith. In Ch. 8, ...
More
According to the model I proposed in Ch. 8, Christian belief is produced in the believer by the internal instigation of the Holy Spirit; the result of this work of the Holy Spirit is faith. In Ch. 8, I explored the cognitive aspects of faith, but faith is more than just belief; in producing faith, the Holy Spirit does more than produce knowledge in the believer – the Holy Spirit also seals this knowledge to our hearts, which is to say that the Holy Spirit begins to cure our misdirected wills, producing in us the right sorts of affections. In this chapter, I explore the affective side of faith, turning first to the work of Jonathan Edwards in order to examine the nature of religious affections. In doing so, I address the issue of the relationship between intellect and will (and belief and affection) in the process of acquiring faith. I then turn to that most important of religious affections, the love of God, exploring the nature of this love and arguing that it is, in part, an erotic love, figured or imaged in the phenomenon of human erotic love.Less
According to the model I proposed in Ch. 8, Christian belief is produced in the believer by the internal instigation of the Holy Spirit; the result of this work of the Holy Spirit is faith. In Ch. 8, I explored the cognitive aspects of faith, but faith is more than just belief; in producing faith, the Holy Spirit does more than produce knowledge in the believer – the Holy Spirit also seals this knowledge to our hearts, which is to say that the Holy Spirit begins to cure our misdirected wills, producing in us the right sorts of affections. In this chapter, I explore the affective side of faith, turning first to the work of Jonathan Edwards in order to examine the nature of religious affections. In doing so, I address the issue of the relationship between intellect and will (and belief and affection) in the process of acquiring faith. I then turn to that most important of religious affections, the love of God, exploring the nature of this love and arguing that it is, in part, an erotic love, figured or imaged in the phenomenon of human erotic love.
Robert C. Solomon
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195368536
- eISBN:
- 9780199852031
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195368536.003.0005
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Philosophy of Mind
This chapter turns to perhaps the most overdiscussed emotion: love. It focuses on eros, which is the word Plato uses. It is erotic or sexual, or what we now (since the romantic period) call ...
More
This chapter turns to perhaps the most overdiscussed emotion: love. It focuses on eros, which is the word Plato uses. It is erotic or sexual, or what we now (since the romantic period) call “romantic” love. What all forms of love share is a peculiar intentional structure, the conception of one's self as intertwined and fused with another. In parenthood, one loves what is quite literally a part of one's own identity. In friendship—true friendship, that is—one comes to think of one's friend as inseparable from oneself. But it is in erotic love, which tends to be exclusive, that this “merging” of selves is most profound.Less
This chapter turns to perhaps the most overdiscussed emotion: love. It focuses on eros, which is the word Plato uses. It is erotic or sexual, or what we now (since the romantic period) call “romantic” love. What all forms of love share is a peculiar intentional structure, the conception of one's self as intertwined and fused with another. In parenthood, one loves what is quite literally a part of one's own identity. In friendship—true friendship, that is—one comes to think of one's friend as inseparable from oneself. But it is in erotic love, which tends to be exclusive, that this “merging” of selves is most profound.
Robert C. Solomon
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- November 2004
- ISBN:
- 9780195145502
- eISBN:
- 9780199834969
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/019514550X.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Philosophy of Mind
Philosophy has as much to do with feelings as it does with thoughts and thinking. It requires sensitivity and a kind of devotion as well as curiosity about the world and a critical spirit. It is a ...
More
Philosophy has as much to do with feelings as it does with thoughts and thinking. It requires sensitivity and a kind of devotion as well as curiosity about the world and a critical spirit. It is a fascination not only with abstract ideas and logically possible worlds but with concrete and very real human concerns and engagements, “the human condition” To be a philosopher is to be steadfastly attentive to what it means to be human, to the passions as well as to much-celebrated “rationality” It is to be concerned with what it means to “exist,” to the satisfactions and worries and real life joys and confusions that affect us all. That is why one of the canonical exhortations in philosophy, inherited from the Delphic Oracle via Socrates, has always been “know thyself,” for it is through unusually rigorous self-examination that we come to know not only ourselves but our Selves, our deepest feelings, fears, and hopes. Philosophy, accordingly, in its concern for feelings, requires not only emotional sensitivity but an understanding of the emotions, not as curious but marginal psychological phenomena but as the very substance of life. And yet, philosophy and philosophers have much more often than not shunned the emotions and defined their profession and themselves strictly in terms of reason and rationality. In the history of philosophy sensitivity is often dismissed as mere “sentimentality.” Sentiment and sentimentality are to be avoided. In this book I am concerned to defend sentimentality and the emotions–at least, some emotions–as essential to life. Foremost among the essential emotions are the sentiments of love and compassion. Not all of the sentiments are so kindly, however. Accordingly, I discuss not only such “moral sentiments” as sympathy and compassion but also grief, gratitude, love, horror, and even vengeance. All of these have suffered from considerable abuse, though from different quarters, but all of them play a central if not essential role in our experience and our lives.Less
Philosophy has as much to do with feelings as it does with thoughts and thinking. It requires sensitivity and a kind of devotion as well as curiosity about the world and a critical spirit. It is a fascination not only with abstract ideas and logically possible worlds but with concrete and very real human concerns and engagements, “the human condition” To be a philosopher is to be steadfastly attentive to what it means to be human, to the passions as well as to much-celebrated “rationality” It is to be concerned with what it means to “exist,” to the satisfactions and worries and real life joys and confusions that affect us all. That is why one of the canonical exhortations in philosophy, inherited from the Delphic Oracle via Socrates, has always been “know thyself,” for it is through unusually rigorous self-examination that we come to know not only ourselves but our Selves, our deepest feelings, fears, and hopes. Philosophy, accordingly, in its concern for feelings, requires not only emotional sensitivity but an understanding of the emotions, not as curious but marginal psychological phenomena but as the very substance of life. And yet, philosophy and philosophers have much more often than not shunned the emotions and defined their profession and themselves strictly in terms of reason and rationality. In the history of philosophy sensitivity is often dismissed as mere “sentimentality.” Sentiment and sentimentality are to be avoided. In this book I am concerned to defend sentimentality and the emotions–at least, some emotions–as essential to life. Foremost among the essential emotions are the sentiments of love and compassion. Not all of the sentiments are so kindly, however. Accordingly, I discuss not only such “moral sentiments” as sympathy and compassion but also grief, gratitude, love, horror, and even vengeance. All of these have suffered from considerable abuse, though from different quarters, but all of them play a central if not essential role in our experience and our lives.
Robert C. Solomon
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780195134674
- eISBN:
- 9780199833733
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195134672.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Philosophy of Religion
For most of my life, I have been dismissive of both spirituality and religion. I say this to make clear the perspective and the starting point of this book, this search. No doubt, many of my readers ...
More
For most of my life, I have been dismissive of both spirituality and religion. I say this to make clear the perspective and the starting point of this book, this search. No doubt, many of my readers will think of me as simpleminded, trying to recover what I should have learned had I been rightly raised in the matrix of religion, ritual, and belief. Others, my friends from the field of science and most of my political friends, will think that I am benighted, or perhaps something of a sell out, for giving up my lifelong down‐to‐earth scientific, and admittedly hyperrational way of thinking about things. But if the very idea of spirituality seemed to me to be contaminated by sectarian religion and by uncritical and antiscientific thinking, my view of life, which manifested in my becoming a philosopher (it did not come from philosophy) pointed to something else. Spirituality is not just organized religion. Nor is it antiscience, unnatural or supernatural. There is a naturalized spirituality that I have always had a glimpse of, and this is what I want to pursue in this book.Less
For most of my life, I have been dismissive of both spirituality and religion. I say this to make clear the perspective and the starting point of this book, this search. No doubt, many of my readers will think of me as simpleminded, trying to recover what I should have learned had I been rightly raised in the matrix of religion, ritual, and belief. Others, my friends from the field of science and most of my political friends, will think that I am benighted, or perhaps something of a sell out, for giving up my lifelong down‐to‐earth scientific, and admittedly hyperrational way of thinking about things. But if the very idea of spirituality seemed to me to be contaminated by sectarian religion and by uncritical and antiscientific thinking, my view of life, which manifested in my becoming a philosopher (it did not come from philosophy) pointed to something else. Spirituality is not just organized religion. Nor is it antiscience, unnatural or supernatural. There is a naturalized spirituality that I have always had a glimpse of, and this is what I want to pursue in this book.
Samuel Fleischacker
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199217366
- eISBN:
- 9780191728495
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199217366.003.0013
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Moral Philosophy
A framework is now established for evaluating further grounds for beliefs about the worth of life: are these grounds better than the metaphysical and quasi-scientific grounds for religious claims ...
More
A framework is now established for evaluating further grounds for beliefs about the worth of life: are these grounds better than the metaphysical and quasi-scientific grounds for religious claims that philosophers today largely dismiss? If not, the critique of religion that marks the modern era—the critique associated, especially, with themes in Marx and Freud—should apply equally to secular visions of life’s value. This framework governs the arguments of Chapters 3–5. In the present chapter, its establishment is followed by a review of several specific activities often regarded as making life worth living (erotic love, social and political activism, art, and the pursuit of knowledge). It is argued that the various empirical considerations adduced in support of such claims tend to be false, and that the metaphysical arguments on which they rest are as weak as any of the arguments for God’s existence.Less
A framework is now established for evaluating further grounds for beliefs about the worth of life: are these grounds better than the metaphysical and quasi-scientific grounds for religious claims that philosophers today largely dismiss? If not, the critique of religion that marks the modern era—the critique associated, especially, with themes in Marx and Freud—should apply equally to secular visions of life’s value. This framework governs the arguments of Chapters 3–5. In the present chapter, its establishment is followed by a review of several specific activities often regarded as making life worth living (erotic love, social and political activism, art, and the pursuit of knowledge). It is argued that the various empirical considerations adduced in support of such claims tend to be false, and that the metaphysical arguments on which they rest are as weak as any of the arguments for God’s existence.
Sudhir Kakar and John Munder Ross
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780198072560
- eISBN:
- 9780199082124
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198072560.003.0009
- Subject:
- Literature, Film, Media, and Cultural Studies
The origins of erotic love can be traced back to the essential union of infant and mother. This chapter follows love’s evolution, meandering through sensuous detours to discover the beloved’s ...
More
The origins of erotic love can be traced back to the essential union of infant and mother. This chapter follows love’s evolution, meandering through sensuous detours to discover the beloved’s unfolding and often unexpected forms, the diversity betraying some basic unity or at least continuity in multiplicity. Psychoanalysts note the similarities in the infinite variety of vital pleasures with terms such as the ‘the primary object’, ‘libido’, and the ‘interdependence of representations of self and other’. Although these unifying drives, objects, and images have been with us all our lives, we continue to uncover or discover their power again and again, continually taking us by surprise. For the Russian-American writer Vladimir Nabokov, life is love that haunts our sensibilities from cradle to grave. Nabokov has given us a narrative and a body of words which make the ontogeny of love come to brilliant life. This chapter deals with the ontogeny of love, sexual passion, Oedipus complex, and incest, focusing on Nabokov's works Lolita, Speak Memory, and Ada.Less
The origins of erotic love can be traced back to the essential union of infant and mother. This chapter follows love’s evolution, meandering through sensuous detours to discover the beloved’s unfolding and often unexpected forms, the diversity betraying some basic unity or at least continuity in multiplicity. Psychoanalysts note the similarities in the infinite variety of vital pleasures with terms such as the ‘the primary object’, ‘libido’, and the ‘interdependence of representations of self and other’. Although these unifying drives, objects, and images have been with us all our lives, we continue to uncover or discover their power again and again, continually taking us by surprise. For the Russian-American writer Vladimir Nabokov, life is love that haunts our sensibilities from cradle to grave. Nabokov has given us a narrative and a body of words which make the ontogeny of love come to brilliant life. This chapter deals with the ontogeny of love, sexual passion, Oedipus complex, and incest, focusing on Nabokov's works Lolita, Speak Memory, and Ada.
Philip Kitcher and Richard Schacht
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195183603
- eISBN:
- 9780199850457
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195183603.003.0017
- Subject:
- Music, Opera
Unlike Wotan who is seemingly fixated at conjuring up conclusions about all sorts of issues, Brünnhilde takes on such issues in an instinctive and sympathetic manner. Soon after Wotan expresses harsh ...
More
Unlike Wotan who is seemingly fixated at conjuring up conclusions about all sorts of issues, Brünnhilde takes on such issues in an instinctive and sympathetic manner. Soon after Wotan expresses harsh reprimands towards Brünnhilde’s minor acts of rebellion, Brünnhilde proceeded with an act of full defiance of Wotan which was inspired in no small part by Siegmund’s determination. This chapter attempts to explain how Brünnhilde’s actions involve her realization to the reality and power of love, and how such recognition is brought about by Siegmund’s love for Sieglinde, Wotan’s love for Siegmund, Brünnhilde’s own love for Siegmund, and Brünnhilde’s love for Wotan. Brünnhilde decides to defy Wotan’s orders by providing Siegmund with protection without stating the exact basis for her decision. More importantly, this chapter enumerates three different forms of love: benevolent love, empathic or compassionate love, and erotic love.Less
Unlike Wotan who is seemingly fixated at conjuring up conclusions about all sorts of issues, Brünnhilde takes on such issues in an instinctive and sympathetic manner. Soon after Wotan expresses harsh reprimands towards Brünnhilde’s minor acts of rebellion, Brünnhilde proceeded with an act of full defiance of Wotan which was inspired in no small part by Siegmund’s determination. This chapter attempts to explain how Brünnhilde’s actions involve her realization to the reality and power of love, and how such recognition is brought about by Siegmund’s love for Sieglinde, Wotan’s love for Siegmund, Brünnhilde’s own love for Siegmund, and Brünnhilde’s love for Wotan. Brünnhilde decides to defy Wotan’s orders by providing Siegmund with protection without stating the exact basis for her decision. More importantly, this chapter enumerates three different forms of love: benevolent love, empathic or compassionate love, and erotic love.
Reidar Due
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- November 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780231167338
- eISBN:
- 9780231850513
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231167338.001.0001
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
This is a book about how film encountered love in the course of its history. It is also a book about the philosophy of love. Since Plato, erotic love has been praised for leading the soul to ...
More
This is a book about how film encountered love in the course of its history. It is also a book about the philosophy of love. Since Plato, erotic love has been praised for leading the soul to knowledge. The vast tradition of poetry devoted to love has emphasized that love is a feeling. This book presents a new metaphysics and ontology of love as a reciprocal erotic relationship. The book argues that film has been particularly well suited for depicting love in this way, in virtue of its special narrative language. This is a language of expression that has developed in the course of film history. The book spans this history from early silent directors such as Joseph von Sternberg to contemporary filmmakers like Sophia Coppola. At the center of this study is a comparison between Classical French and American love films of the forties and a series of modernist films by Luis Buñuel, François Truffaut and Wong Kar Wai.Less
This is a book about how film encountered love in the course of its history. It is also a book about the philosophy of love. Since Plato, erotic love has been praised for leading the soul to knowledge. The vast tradition of poetry devoted to love has emphasized that love is a feeling. This book presents a new metaphysics and ontology of love as a reciprocal erotic relationship. The book argues that film has been particularly well suited for depicting love in this way, in virtue of its special narrative language. This is a language of expression that has developed in the course of film history. The book spans this history from early silent directors such as Joseph von Sternberg to contemporary filmmakers like Sophia Coppola. At the center of this study is a comparison between Classical French and American love films of the forties and a series of modernist films by Luis Buñuel, François Truffaut and Wong Kar Wai.
Linnell Secomb
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748623679
- eISBN:
- 9780748671854
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748623679.003.0009
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Political Philosophy
This chapter explores same-sex marriage and the public and political implications of marriage elaborated by Judith Butler. It also investigates the debates around kinship, recognition, erotic love ...
More
This chapter explores same-sex marriage and the public and political implications of marriage elaborated by Judith Butler. It also investigates the debates around kinship, recognition, erotic love and ceremony. Butler finds herself awkwardly positioned in relation to the same-sex marriage debate. For Butler, kinship is an ‘enacted practice’ through which dependents are nurtured and cared for. The same-sex marriage debate may transform the current understandings of gay and lesbian identity. The claim that marriage is about love and offers recognition of gay and lesbian love is vital to the pro-same-sex marriage position. Michel Foucault's insistence on the importance of love, friendship and affection explains perhaps why same-sex marriage has become so central to lesbian and gay politics. The Fluxus and Love Art Laboratory weddings challenge the static nature of traditional weddings, the reduction of two to one, and the exclusion of the intimate friend/family network from marriage.Less
This chapter explores same-sex marriage and the public and political implications of marriage elaborated by Judith Butler. It also investigates the debates around kinship, recognition, erotic love and ceremony. Butler finds herself awkwardly positioned in relation to the same-sex marriage debate. For Butler, kinship is an ‘enacted practice’ through which dependents are nurtured and cared for. The same-sex marriage debate may transform the current understandings of gay and lesbian identity. The claim that marriage is about love and offers recognition of gay and lesbian love is vital to the pro-same-sex marriage position. Michel Foucault's insistence on the importance of love, friendship and affection explains perhaps why same-sex marriage has become so central to lesbian and gay politics. The Fluxus and Love Art Laboratory weddings challenge the static nature of traditional weddings, the reduction of two to one, and the exclusion of the intimate friend/family network from marriage.
Cristina L. H. Traina
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- March 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226811383
- eISBN:
- 9780226811376
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226811376.001.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Ethical Issues and Debates
Heightened awareness of the problem of sexual abuse has led to deep anxiety over adults touching children—in nearly any context. Though our society has moved toward increasingly strict enforcement of ...
More
Heightened awareness of the problem of sexual abuse has led to deep anxiety over adults touching children—in nearly any context. Though our society has moved toward increasingly strict enforcement of this taboo, studies have shown that young children need regular human contact, and the benefits of breastfeeding have been widely extolled. Exploring the history of love, desire, gender, sexuality, parenthood, and inequality, this book probes the disquieting issue of how we can draw a clear line between natural affection toward children and perverse exploitation of them. The author demonstrates that we cannot determine what is wrong about sexual abuse without first understanding what is good about appropriate sensual affection. Looking at topics such as the importance of touch in nurturing children, the psychology of abuse and victimhood, and recent ideologies of motherhood, she argues that we must expand our philosophical and theological language of physical love and make a distinction between sexual love and erotic love. Taking on theological and ethical arguments over the question of sexuality between unequals, the author arrives at the conclusion that it can be destructive to completely bar eroticism from these relationships.Less
Heightened awareness of the problem of sexual abuse has led to deep anxiety over adults touching children—in nearly any context. Though our society has moved toward increasingly strict enforcement of this taboo, studies have shown that young children need regular human contact, and the benefits of breastfeeding have been widely extolled. Exploring the history of love, desire, gender, sexuality, parenthood, and inequality, this book probes the disquieting issue of how we can draw a clear line between natural affection toward children and perverse exploitation of them. The author demonstrates that we cannot determine what is wrong about sexual abuse without first understanding what is good about appropriate sensual affection. Looking at topics such as the importance of touch in nurturing children, the psychology of abuse and victimhood, and recent ideologies of motherhood, she argues that we must expand our philosophical and theological language of physical love and make a distinction between sexual love and erotic love. Taking on theological and ethical arguments over the question of sexuality between unequals, the author arrives at the conclusion that it can be destructive to completely bar eroticism from these relationships.
Janet Martin Soskice
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198269502
- eISBN:
- 9780191683657
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198269502.003.0009
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology, Religion and Literature
This chapter examines the different Christian views on friendship. According to Cicero, the one thing in human experience about whose advantage all men agree, is friendship. He implies that without ...
More
This chapter examines the different Christian views on friendship. According to Cicero, the one thing in human experience about whose advantage all men agree, is friendship. He implies that without friendship, life is not life at all. Friendship can only exist among good men and it contains nothing false or pretended. It also follows that friendship is reciprocal. It is mutual and involves two. Sociologists, psychologists, and anthropologists study friendship as a natural phenomenon that is biologically adaptive and functionally effective. The chapter suggests friendship is fundamentally a human good. In C. S. Lewis's The Four Loves, friendship is one of the four loves. It arises on the basis of shared insight, interest, and vision. He also argues that friendships between sexes easily pass into erotic love.Less
This chapter examines the different Christian views on friendship. According to Cicero, the one thing in human experience about whose advantage all men agree, is friendship. He implies that without friendship, life is not life at all. Friendship can only exist among good men and it contains nothing false or pretended. It also follows that friendship is reciprocal. It is mutual and involves two. Sociologists, psychologists, and anthropologists study friendship as a natural phenomenon that is biologically adaptive and functionally effective. The chapter suggests friendship is fundamentally a human good. In C. S. Lewis's The Four Loves, friendship is one of the four loves. It arises on the basis of shared insight, interest, and vision. He also argues that friendships between sexes easily pass into erotic love.
Matthew Wright
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- March 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780198777250
- eISBN:
- 9780191823015
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198777250.003.0012
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Ancient Greek, Roman, and Early Christian Philosophy
‘A Lover’s Discourse’ is a comprehensive study of the phenomenon of erotic love (erōs) in Greek tragedy. In contrast to recent scholarship on the topic, which has tended to treat tragic erōs as ...
More
‘A Lover’s Discourse’ is a comprehensive study of the phenomenon of erotic love (erōs) in Greek tragedy. In contrast to recent scholarship on the topic, which has tended to treat tragic erōs as invariably and exclusively negative in its associations, this chapter shows that erōs in tragedy is a varied and multifarious emotion with good and bad aspects, just as it is in other contexts and literary genres. The chapter approaches the topic from a literary and linguistic angle, heavily influenced by the methodology of Roland Barthes. Its main focus is the discourse of erōs, understood in terms of a figurative, metaphorical system of language. The bulk of the chapter consists of a tragic ‘Lover’s Dictionary’ in the manner of Barthes’ Fragments d’un discours amoureux.Less
‘A Lover’s Discourse’ is a comprehensive study of the phenomenon of erotic love (erōs) in Greek tragedy. In contrast to recent scholarship on the topic, which has tended to treat tragic erōs as invariably and exclusively negative in its associations, this chapter shows that erōs in tragedy is a varied and multifarious emotion with good and bad aspects, just as it is in other contexts and literary genres. The chapter approaches the topic from a literary and linguistic angle, heavily influenced by the methodology of Roland Barthes. Its main focus is the discourse of erōs, understood in terms of a figurative, metaphorical system of language. The bulk of the chapter consists of a tragic ‘Lover’s Dictionary’ in the manner of Barthes’ Fragments d’un discours amoureux.
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- March 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226305578
- eISBN:
- 9780226305202
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226305202.003.0009
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Ancient Philosophy
This chapter argues that Zeno's conception of healthy relations between persons and within social groups incorporates a robust role for what is recognized as genuine love, affection, and friendship. ...
More
This chapter argues that Zeno's conception of healthy relations between persons and within social groups incorporates a robust role for what is recognized as genuine love, affection, and friendship. It is clear that the sharing of goods and intentions between wise friends replicates a relational pattern which is supposed to obtain among all members of the normative polity. Perhaps the most radical element in the Stoic theory of friendship is the claim that relations among good people can be warm and genuine without also compromising the self-sufficiency of the individual. Closely linked to the position on friendship is the Stoic claim that the person of perfect understanding will also fall in love. Erotic love was an important theme for early Stoic authors. An affectionate disposition may instead be a disposition of strength, the capacity to identify one's own needs and motives with those of a larger social unit when circumstances allow this.Less
This chapter argues that Zeno's conception of healthy relations between persons and within social groups incorporates a robust role for what is recognized as genuine love, affection, and friendship. It is clear that the sharing of goods and intentions between wise friends replicates a relational pattern which is supposed to obtain among all members of the normative polity. Perhaps the most radical element in the Stoic theory of friendship is the claim that relations among good people can be warm and genuine without also compromising the self-sufficiency of the individual. Closely linked to the position on friendship is the Stoic claim that the person of perfect understanding will also fall in love. Erotic love was an important theme for early Stoic authors. An affectionate disposition may instead be a disposition of strength, the capacity to identify one's own needs and motives with those of a larger social unit when circumstances allow this.
Chana Bloch
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- March 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780823225712
- eISBN:
- 9780823237067
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fso/9780823225712.003.0011
- Subject:
- Religion, Biblical Studies
“Kiss me, make me drunk with your kisses! Your sweet loving / is better than wine”. The great love poem that begins with these words does not follow the conventional romantic plot: boy ...
More
“Kiss me, make me drunk with your kisses! Your sweet loving / is better than wine”. The great love poem that begins with these words does not follow the conventional romantic plot: boy meets girl, boy and girl get acquainted, boy proposes marriage. That the two are already intimate is clear from the very first words of the Song of Songs. Love, not marriage, is what they propose, and the woman, who is called the Shulamite, does most of the proposing. She, in fact, is the one who issues that first urgent invitation. Although the Song was in all likelihood composed as a poem about erotic love, the rabbis read it as an allegory about the love of God and the people of Israel. This interpretation, along with the attribution to King Solomon, helped the Song to survive the final cut of the canon makers. The Church Fathers in turn read the Song as a loving dialogue between Christ and his bride, the church.Less
“Kiss me, make me drunk with your kisses! Your sweet loving / is better than wine”. The great love poem that begins with these words does not follow the conventional romantic plot: boy meets girl, boy and girl get acquainted, boy proposes marriage. That the two are already intimate is clear from the very first words of the Song of Songs. Love, not marriage, is what they propose, and the woman, who is called the Shulamite, does most of the proposing. She, in fact, is the one who issues that first urgent invitation. Although the Song was in all likelihood composed as a poem about erotic love, the rabbis read it as an allegory about the love of God and the people of Israel. This interpretation, along with the attribution to King Solomon, helped the Song to survive the final cut of the canon makers. The Church Fathers in turn read the Song as a loving dialogue between Christ and his bride, the church.
