L57 RelPol 245
Love and Reason
Spring 2023, M/W 11:30AM–12:50PM
This course offers an introduction to modern Christian thought and Western philosophy through themes of love and reason.
WUCRSL-
Fannie Bialek
Assistant Professor
Love often seems dramatically unreasonable, and reason can seem coldly rational in a way that excludes any emotion, passion, or affiliation even akin to love. The supposed opposition between love and reason has been used by Christian and secular thinkers throughout modernity to organize ways of knowing and judging, and to criticize claims of faith, belief, and desire. But are love and reason really so distinct? What does it mean to say so, and why might someone make this claim? Can love be reasoned, and even reasonable? Can reason be aided by love, and even driven by it? How might different answers to these questions affect our understanding of other possibly unreasoned categories like faith, belief, and piety? This course offers an introduction to modern Christian thought and Western philosophy through these questions and themes.
Course history:
- Fall 2017: taught by Prof. Fannie Bialek
- Spring 2020: taught by Prof. Fannie Bialek