Socratic Love

In this lecture, Agnes Callard explores why we would commit to a beloved.

How is the inherent restlessness of love compatible with our longing for commitment? We can articulate this question in terms of a paradox about whether it is possible for love to be both stable and rational. If your love for me is rational, then I am loved because I instantiate a set of good qualities. If someone else turns out to instantiate those qualities more fully than I, they should be preferred as a substitute for me. If love is stable, and beloveds are irreplaceable--you will keep loving me, no matter what, even if you find someone better--then it seems love is not rationally grounded in the goodness of the beloved. I explore a Socratic compromise: philosophical love is not fully stable, because the lovers themselves are in flux, nor is it fully rational, because their love, instead of being grounded in the goodness they have, is aspirationally grounded in the goodness they seek.

About the speaker:

Agnes Callard is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Chicago. Callard's primary research areas are Ancient Philosophy and Ethics. As a public philosopher, her writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Boston Review, The New Yorker, and The Point magazine. She is the author of Aspiration: The Agency of Becoming (Oxford University Press, 2018).

When: Thursday 28th July 2022 , Lecture to commence from 6-7pm

Where: Old Government House, Lecture theatre G36, 24 Princes Street, Auckland

Drinks & nibbles will be served in the Old Government House Members Lounge following the lecture until 8.30pm.

Think GREEN! - registration is for catering purposes only, no need to print out your ticket