Abstract

De lezing is gebaseerd op Marise’s scriptie ‘Loving or losing love, a critical assessment of claims about a ‘loveless society’

Marise’s lezing zal in het Nederlands zijn. Hieronder een Engelse abstract, direct uit haar scriptie:

“In this thesis, I take a critical look at the views on love of the two main authors who propound the theory of a loveless society, bell hooks, and Erich Fromm. I argue that the claims they make about love in their explanation of lovelessness in current society are defendable and we are indeed experiencing lovelessness. After explaining hooks’ and Fromm’s main assumption about love, I discuss psychological and sociological research from Stephen Butler and Eva Illouz to help explain why our capitalist society has become loveless. I examine the claims of hooks and Fromm based on six philosophical theories about love: hedonism, platonic intellectualism, stoicism, evolutionism, agapism, and romanticism. I look at the three different societal conceptions of love that these authors have identified over the years and match different philosophical theories with each one. I will also show that hooks and Fromm assume an agapic account of love, which I argue to be the most defensible account of love after critical inspection of the alternative accounts, despite some drawbacks.”

Opname van de lezing: