Seminar Schedule

PHIL 380.02—The Self in Love and Friendship
Taber, Fall 2025
St. Mary’s College of Maryland, USA

(revised 11 July 2025)

* = sessions available for you to lead solo

** = sessions available for a pair of you to lead

There is a Google folder in which reside some materials for class.

I. Classic accounts of love
Sep. 03	Introduction to the semester, and discussing Plato’s Symposium, Introductory Dialogue, Speech of Phaedrus, and Speech of Pausanias [19 pp.] Notice the rhetorical interplay among: Plato the writer, the narrator (whose name is what?), the source for the narrator, and you the reader. Any idea as to why all these layers?
Sep. 05	Plato’s Symposium, through Speech of Aristophanes [12 pp.]
Sep. 08	Plato’s Symposium, through Socrates Questions Agathon [13 pp.]
Sep. 10	Plato’s Symposium, through Speech of Diotima [16 pp.]
Sep. 12	Plato’s Symposium, remainder (through “Final Dialogue”) [16 pp.]
Sep. 14	Sunday by noon: email paper #1 (3-4-pp.)
Sep. 15	from Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians, chs. 7 & 13 [6 pp.]
Sep. 17	Nygren’s “Agape and Eros” [11 pp.]
II. Classic accounts of friendship
Sep. 19	Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, Book VIII [20 pp.]
Sep. 22	Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, Book IX [18 pp.]
Sep. 24	Gartner’s “Aristotle on the Nature and Value of Friendship” [10 pp.]
Sep. 26	Abbey’s “Mary Wollstonecraft on ‘That Simple Food’ of Friendship” [10 pp.]
Sep. 29	Conlon’s “Why Lovers Can’t Be Friends” & Klaassen’s “Friends and Lovers” [5 + 6 pp.]
Oct. 01	Paper #2 (4-5 pp.) due by noon to Taber; no class today due to tutorials.
III. Relationships and self-interest
Oct. 03	C. S. Lewis’ The Four Loves, “Introduction” & “Affection” [9+26 pp.], skipping “Likings and Loves for the Sub-Human”
Oct. 06**	Lewis’ “Friendship” [34 pp.]
Oct. 08**	Lewis’ “Eros” [25 pp.]
Oct. 10**	Lewis’ “Charity” [26 pp.]
Oct. 13	No classes, due to College’s Fall Reading Days, 13^th & 14^th
Oct. 15	Rand’s The Virtue of Selfishness, Introduction & ch. 1, “The Objectivist Ethics” [33 pp.]
Oct. 17**	Rand, chs. 3-5 [22 pp.]
Oct. 20**	Nozick’s “Love’s Bond” [19 pp.]
Oct. 22**	Fumerton’s “Friendship and Self-Interest” [8 pp.]
Oct. 24**	Brink’s “Friendship and the Personal Good” [11 pp.]
Oct. 27	Paper #3 (5-7 pp.) due by noon to Taber; no class today due to tutorials.
Oct. 29	5-minute presentation about your research topic (+ 5 mins. Q&A)
Oct. 31
IV. Contemporary work on love
Nov. 03*	Protasi’s “Mama, Do You Love Me? A Defense of Unloving Parents” [11 pp.]
Nov. 05*	Behrensen’s “Queer Bodies and Queer Love” [11 pp.]
Nov. 07*	Liberto’s “Threats, Warnings, and Relationship Ultimatums” [9 pp.]
Nov. 10*	Cherry’s “Love, Anger, and Racial Justice” [11 pp.]
Nov. 12*	Ebels-Duggan’s “Love and Agency” [10 pp.]
Nov. 14*	Nyholm’s “Love Troubles: Human Attachment and Biomedical Enhancements” & Naar’s “Real-World Love Drugs: Reply to Nyholm” [13 + 4 pp.]
Nov. 17*	Sullins’ “Robots, Love, and Sex: The Ethics of Building a Love Machine” [11 pp.]
V. Contemporary work on friendship
Nov. 19*	Healy’s “Friendship Between Children” [9 pp.]
Nov. 21*	Ben-Moshe’s “The Physician as Friend to the Patient” [11 pp.]
Nov. 24	Teach Your Family presentations
Thanksgiving break
Dec. 01*	Kristjánsson’s “Can Parents and Their Children Be Friends?” [9 pp.]
Dec. 03*	Abbate’s “The Animals in Our Living Rooms: Friends or Family?” [11 pp.]
Dec. 05*	Jollimore’s “Partiality to Friends” [12 pp.]
Dec. 08*	McKeever’s “Friends with Benefits: Is Sex Compatible with Friendship?” [10 pp.]
Dec. 10*	Elder’s “Friendship and Social Media” [11 pp.]
Dec. 12	remaining Teach Your Family presentations
Dec. 16	Your final paper (8+ pp.) is due emailed to Taber by the conclusion of our final exam slot: 4:15 p.m. ET.

---

Send me mail: mstaber at smcm dot edu

Go to the home page for this course.

Go to Michael Taber's home page.

Go to the SMCM home page.