Seminar Schedule

LEAD 301.03—Philosophy Love and Friendship
Taber and Crook, Fall 2025
St. Mary’s College of Maryland, USA

(revised 11 May 2025)

There is a Google folder for this course, with some material in it.

* = sessions available for you to lead

I. Classic accounts of love
Sept. 03	Introduction to the semester, and come ready to discuss Plato’s Symposium, Introductory Dialogue, Speech of Phaedrus, and Speech of Pausanias [19 pp.] Write Bite: Notice the rhetorical interplay among: Plato the writer, the narrator (whose name is what?), the source for the narrator, and you the reader.
Sept. 05	Read Plato’s Symposium, through Speech of Aristophanes [12 pp.] Write Bite: Prior to class, how many of the 8 possible points did you nail on “Subjects, Verbs, Phrases, and Clauses”?
Sept. 08	Plato’s Symposium, through Speech of Diotima [16 pp.] (Skipping the Agathon sections.) Write Bite: What’s a thesis statement? (with exercises)
Sept. 10	Kelly’s “Sexism in Practice: Feminist Ethics Evaluating the Hookup Culture” [13 pp.] Write Bite: Peer mentor about the Writing and Speaking Center
Sept. 12	Plato’s Symposium, remainder (through “Final Dialogue”) [16 pp.] Write Bite: Signing up for next week’s tutorials
Sept. 15	from Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians, chs. 7 & 13 [6 pp.] Write Bite: Exercise on summarizing without plagiarizing
Sept. 17	Paper #1 (3-4 pp.) submitted by start of class time or by your tutorial time (whichever is earlier) Write Bite: No class today, as tutorials will be scheduled.
Sept. 19	Nygren’s “Agape and Eros” [11 pp.]
II. Classic accounts of friendship
Sept. 22	Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, Book VIII, chs. 1-6 [9 pp.] Write Bites: · Paper #1 returned to you; commence rewriting. · Review of common mechanical errors (e.g., spelling, grammar, punctuation, thesis statements, topic sentences) on Paper #1
Sept. 24	Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, Book IX, chs. 3-9 [15 pp.]
Sept. 26	Conlon’s “Why Lovers Can’t Be Friends” & Klaassen’s “Friends and Lovers” [5 + 6 pp.] Write Bites: · Signing up for next week’s tutorials. · Rewrites of Paper #1 due by start of class time.
Sept. 29	Elder’s “Excellent online friendships: An Aristotelian defense of social media” [10 pp.]
Oct. 01	Write Bites: Library session with our course’s library liaison, xyz: meet in the Library Lab, room 306, with your laptop/tablet if you have one. (Phones won’t cut the mustard. Chromebooks are available at the Library’s circulation desk for your use during the session.)
Oct. 03	Peer mentor on “What I wish I’d known when I was where you are.” Write Bite: How to give a good (and bad) presentation
Oct. 06	Paper #2 (4-5 pp.) submitted by start of class time or by your tutorial time (whichever is earlier) Write Bite: No class today, as tutorials will be scheduled.
III. “Lewis-bot” Project
Oct. 08	C. S. Lewis’ The Four Loves, “Introduction” [9 pp.] Write Bites: · Paper #2 returned to you by today; commence optional rewriting. · Explanation of “Lewis-bot” project
Oct. 10	Lewis’ “Likings and Loves for the Sub-Human” [21 pp.]
Oct. 13	No classes, due to College’s Fall Reading Days, 13^th & 14^th
Oct. 15*	Lewis’ “Affection” [26 pp.]
Oct. 17*	Lewis’ “Friendship” [34 pp.]
Oct. 20*	Lewis’ “Eros” [25 pp.] Write Bite: Rewrites of Paper #2 due by start of class time.
Oct. 22*	Lewis’ “Charity” [26 pp.]
Oct. 24	Write Bite: Share & refine AI queries in class. (Bring laptop or tablet.)
Oct. 27	Your Lewis-bot project, Paper #3 (4-5 pp.), due by start of class. No tutorials for this paper, so we’ll have class, but with no new readings.
Oct. 29	5-minute presentation about your research topic Write Bite: Paper #3 returned to you by today; commence optional rewriting.
Oct. 31
IV. Love and Friendship in the Time of Silicon
Nov. 03*	Nyholm’s “Love Troubles: Human Attachment and Biomedical Enhancements” & Naar’s “Real-World Love Drugs: Reply to Nyholm” [13 + 4 pp.]
Nov. 05*	Sullins’ “Robots, Love, and Sex: The Ethics of Building a Love Machine” [11 pp.]
Nov. 07*	Abbate’s “It’s Not Just a Personal Preference: Racialized Discrimination in the Tinder Context” [13 pp.] Write Bite: Rewrites of Paper #3 due by start of class time. See here for details.
Nov. 10*	Elder’s Friendships, Robots, and Social Media, Introduction [14 pp.]
Nov. 12*	Elder, ch. 4, “False Friends and False Coinage: A Tool for Navigating the Ethics of Sociable Robots” [16 pp.] (Skipping chs. 1-3.) Write Bite: Research proposal (1-2 pages) due by start of class.
Nov. 14*	Elder, ch. 5, “What’s Wrong with Robot ‘Friends” for Lonely Seniors?” [12 pp.] Write Bite: Research proposal returned to you by today.
Nov. 17*	Elder, ch. 6, “Counterfeit Currency Versus Monopoly Money: Using Appearances to Build Capacity” [14 pp.]
Nov. 19*	Elder, ch. 7, “Should You Buy Yourself a ‘Friend’? Ethics of Consumer Markets for Robot Companions” [20 pp.]
Nov. 21*	Elder, ch. 8, “Humans Aren’t Cows: An Aristotelian Defense of Technologically Mediated Friendship” [23 pp.] Write Bite: If required, revised research proposal due by start of class.
Nov. 24	Teach Your Family presentations, first half
Thanksgiving break
Dec. 01*	Elder, ch. 9, “Taking Control of Conversations Through Technologically Mediated Communication” [16 pp.]
Dec. 03*	Elder, ch. 10, “What Words Can’t Say: Emojis and Other Non-Verbal Elements…” [19 pp.]
Dec. 05	No new readings for class, as we commence discussions of what people are learning from their research topics. Write Bite: Submitted by start of class: the first four pages (at least) of your final paper, together with your bibliography of at least 4 sources that you will be using for the full paper (even if they are not used in the portion you submit at this point).
Dec. 08	Continuation of discussions of what people are learning from their research topics.
Dec. 10*	Elder, ch. 11, “The Moral Import of Medium” & Conclusion [30 pp.]
Dec. 12	Teach Your Family presentations, second half
ABCday Dec. XY	Your final paper (7+ pp.) is due emailed by P:QR a.m./p.m. ET.

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