The Research paper is the most substantial assignment of the semester, and virtually all students will have to complete some form of the paper in order to receive a respectable grade in the class. However, the paper will be graded on a sliding scale, as described below.
In the paper, students will be required to choose and answer one of the following questions, taking a controversial position and arguing for their position over against alternative perspectives, anticipating objections and critiquing opposing views:
- How does Plato’s discussion of Love in the Symposium (or Aristotle’s discussion of Friendship in the Nicomachean Ethics) inform more recent scholars? (like Augustine, Wollstonecraft, Nietzsche, Freud, etc.) Are we still talking about the same phenomenon? What practical consequences of Plato’s view are evident in these more modern relationships?
- Has the Judeo-Christian ideal of selfless Love been distorted by ostensibly-Christian writers? (like Augustine, Capellanus, Wollstonecraft, Kierkegaard, etc.) If so, why and how have they changed it? If not, why and how have they preserved it intact?
- How have these philosophical ideas regarding Love and Friendship affected women’s experiences? How have new theories of Love and Friendship served to further subjugate women under men? How have these theories been employed to liberate women?
- How have perceptions surrounding homosexuality and homoeroticism changed since the Ancient Greeks? What philosophical perspectives have influenced these changes? How have queer people benefited or suffered under these changing perspectives?