Philosophy+of+Friendship

toc //Philosophy of Friendship// is currently a dream waiting to be realized. This is a course that I have not taught, and am perfecting for the day that I may teach it. I am hoping that if the course is already relatively planned that the chances of it being taught by me will be improved. My interest in this topic began with a course taught by Bob Kruschwitz that centered on Aristotle's //Nichomean Ethics// and it has most recently been reinvigorated by Jacques Derrida's //Politics of Friendship// and Derrida's eulogy to Emmanual Levinas, //Adieu//.

Course Overview
We will explore the concept of the friend (an necessarily the enemy) and the idea/action of friendship as it emerges in the Western tradition through the thought of Aristotle in the //Ethics// and Cicero in //Laelius//. A close quarter-long reading of these two works will begin and likely end the course's discussion on friendship. The intent of this opening quarter is to expose students to ancient Greek philosophy and to the process of reflection on ideas/presuppositions and an analysis of the conceptsion that govern human behavior. During the second quarter, students will go through a small portion of the voluminous secondary material on these works and write papers addressing "issues" that emerge between "friends." A series of drafts, classroom discussions, and conferences will culminate in argumentative paper on an aspect of friendship. Third quarter will be structured similar to the first with emphasis on shorter selections from Montaigne's essays on friendship in Book 3 of //Essais//, Levinas's //Totality and Infinity//, and Derrida's //Politics of Friendship// and //Adieu//. This quarter will try to develop a philosophical lens to view the relationship with the other from the thought of Levinas and refract it through these other works. Quarter four will introduce other genres including fiction and film in order to foster commentary and reflection by students on current media. The course will culminate in an extended paper that incorporates both their own thoughts and the thoughts of the course's thinkers (as well as other thinkers) in the evaluation of a particular dynamic between the self and the other in the relation of friendship.

Readings
//Other Selves: Philosophers on Friendship//, ed. by Michael Pakaluk, Hackett Publishing Company, 1991.

//Friendship: A Philosophical Reader//, ed. by Neera Kapur Badhwar, Cornell University Press, 1993.

Selections from Emmanual Levinas, //Totality and Infinity: An Essay on Exteriority//, including "Metaphysics and Transcendence," "The Dwelling," and "Ethics and the Face," trans. by Alfonso Lingis, Duquesne University Press, 1969.

Selection from Jacques Derrida, //Adieu to Emmanual Levinas//, trans. by Pascale-Anne Brault and Michael Ness, Stanford University Press, 1999.

Selections from Jacques Derrida, //Politics of Friendship,// including "Oligarchies: Naming, Enumerating, Counting" and "'In human language, fraternity . . . '," trans. by George Collins, Verso Publications, 1997.