The Chinese University of Hong Kong

(2023-24, 1st)
UGED2891 Philosophy of Love
Course Outline

Teacher: Dr. LAU Po Hei

Time: Tue 15:30-18:15
Venue: LHC 104

Course Overview
• This course aims at a philosophical discussion on the theories of love in the Chinese and Western culture.
• Topics include: evaluation of the philosophical approach to the phenomena of love in the Chinese and
Western tradition, classical Western theories of love, Christian thought on love, traditional Chinese theories
of love, and philosophy of love in modern society.
Learning Outcomes
• Recognize and understand concepts and theories about love and their significance
• Recognize the relationship between love experience and the development of self-understanding, and the
value of human life as a whole
• Critically analyze and evaluate the experiences of love and formulate their own understanding of love
Learning Activities
1. In-class:
• Lecture: 26 hours
• Discussion and Presentation: 13 hours
2. Out-of-class:
• Reading (1-2 hour(s)/week)
• Movie Watching

Assessment Scheme
Assessment Component Description Weight (%)
Class Participation To engage with classmates in class 10%
Class Presentation To present an article in class 20%
Film Review To view an assigned film (1 out of 3) and write a review 25%
Final Exam To answer essay type questions (3 out of 5) 45%

Grade Descriptors
• http://phil.arts.cuhk.edu.hk/~phidept/UG/Grade_descriptors.pdf

Academic Honesty and Plagiarism

Attention is drawn to University policy and regulations on honesty in academic work, and to the disciplinary
guidelines and procedures applicable to breaches of such policy and regulations. Details may be found at
http://www.cuhk.edu.hk/policy/academichonesty/ .
With each assignment, students are required to submit a signed declaration that they are aware of these policies,
regulations, guidelines and procedures. For group projects, all students of the same group should be asked to
sign the declaration.
For assignments in the form of a computer-generated document that is principally text-based and submitted via
VeriGuide, the statement, in the form of a receipt, will be issued by the system upon students’ uploading of the
soft copy of the assignment. Assignments without the receipt will not be graded by teachers. Only the final
version of the assignment should be submitted via VeriGuide.

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 The Chinese University of Hong Kong
(2023-24, 1st)

Weekly Course Schedule & Reading Assignment

Date Topic Required readings
5/9 Love: • “Puzzles” (De Sousa, 2015)
（Week 1） a Philosophical Inquiry • 〈愛情不問理由？〉 (郭柏年，2020)
12/9 The Evolution of Love: • “Battle of the Sexes” (Dawkins, 2006)
（Week 2） Battles of the Sexes? • “Out of Eden” (Fisher, 2016)
• 〈愛情與生物學有何關係？〉 (普列希特，2021)
19/9 Eros (1): • “The Birth of Aphrodite and a New Vocabulary of
（Week 3） Love in Greek Mythology Love” (Bergmann, 1987)
• “Romantic Fatalism” (De Botton, 2007)
“Metamorphoses of Mythology” (Morales, 2007)
26/9 Eros (2): Symposium (Plato, 1997)
（Week 4） Platonic Love • “Plato” (May, 2011)
• “The Speech of Alcibiades” (Nussbaum, 2001)
• “Platonic Eros” (Singer, 2009)
3/10 Agape (1): The City of God (Augustine, 2008)
（Week 5） Love in the Old Testament • “Hebrew Scripture” (May, 2011)
• “Nomos: Submission to God’s Will” (Singer, 2009)
10/10 Agape (2): Agape and Eros (Nygren, 1982)
（Week 6） Love in the New Testament • “Christianity” (May, 2011)
• “Agape: The Divine Bestowal,” (Singer, 2009)
• “Christian Love” (Wagoner, 1997)
17/10 Qing 情: • “The Cult of Qing” (Lee, 2007)
（Week 7） The Chinese Idea of Love • 〈情歸何處：晚明情性思想的解讀〉 (楊儒賓，
2020)
• 〈戀愛：由新名詞到關鍵詞〉 (楊聯芬，2016)
24/10 Romantic Love: • “The Tristan Myth,” (De Rougemont, 1983)
（Week 8） Passion & Death • “The Concept of Courtly Love” (Singer, 2009)
• “Romantic Love” (Wagoner, 1997)
31/10 Skepticism of Love (1): • “Schopenhauer” (May, 2011)
（Week 9） Stendhal & Schopenhauer • “The Metaphysics of Sexual Love” (Schopenhauer,
1966)
• “On Love,” (Stendhal, 1991)
7/11 Skepticism of Love (2): • “Freud’s Theory of Love,” (Santas, 1988)
（Week 10） Freud & Psychoanalysis • “Freud’s Indebtedness to Plato: The Problem of
Sublimation” “What Freud Discovered about Love”
(Bergmann, 1987)
• “Freud” (May, 2011)
14/11 Modern Love (1): • “Falling In and Out of Love,” “In and Out of the
（Week 11） Sociology of Love Toolbox of Sociality,” (Bauman, 2003)
• “Love, Our Secular Religion,” (Beck, 1995)
• “Intimacy as Democracy” (Giddens, 1992)
21/11 Modern Love (2): Being and Nothingness (Sartre, 1993)
（Week 12） Sartre’s Existentialism • “Jean-Paul Sartre and Loving Sadomasochistically”
(Cleary, 2015)
28/11 Conclusion /
（Week 13）

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 The Chinese University of Hong Kong
(2023-24, 1st)

Required Readings
May, Simon. 2011. Love: a History. New Haven: Yale University Press.
張燦輝，2023。《生死愛欲 I》，《生死愛欲 II》。臺北：漫遊者。

Other Recommended Readings/ Learning Resources

Armstrong, John. 2003. Conditions of Love: the Philosophy of Intimacy. New York: W.W. Norton & Co.
Augustine, Saint, Bishop of Hippo. 2008. The City of God, Books VIII-XVI (selection), trans. Gerald G. Walsh
and Grace Monahan. Washington: Catholic University of America Press.
Bauman, Zygmunt. 2003. Liquid Love: on the Frailty of Human Bonds. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Beck, Ulrich. 1995. The Normal Chaos of Love, trans. Mark Ritter & Jane Wiebel. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Bergmann, Martin. 1987. The Anatomy of Loving. New York: Columbia University Press.
Cleary, Skye. 2015. Existentialism and Romantic Love. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Dawkins, Richard. 2006. The Selfish Gene, 30th anniversary ed. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press.
De Botton, Alain. 2006. Essays in Love. Reprinted ed. London: Picador.
De Rougemont, Denis. 1983. Love in the Western World, rev. ed. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
De Sousa, Ronald. 2015. Love: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Fisher, Helen E. 2016. Anatomy of Love: a Natural History of Mating, Marriage, and Why We Stray. New York: Norton.
Giddens, Anthony. 1992. The Transformation of Intimacy: Sexuality, Love and Eroticism in Modern Societies. Cambridge:
Polity Press.
Lee, Haiyan. 2007. Revolution of the Heart: A Genealogy of Love in China, 1900-1950. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford
University Press.
Martin, Adrienne M. 2019. The Routledge Handbook of Love in Philosophy. New York: Roudledge.
May, Simon. 2019. Love: A New Understanding of an Ancient Emotion. New York: Oxford University Press.
Nussbaum, Martha Craven. 2001. The Fragility of Goodness: Luck and Ethics in Greek Tragedy and Philosophy, rev. ed.
New York: Cambridge University Press.
Nygren, Anders. 1982. Agape and Eros, trans. Philip S. Watson. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Plato. 1997. “Symposium,” “Phaedrus,” Complete Works, ed. John M. Cooper & D.S. Hutchinson. Indianapolis:
Hackett, pp. 457-505, 506-556.
Santas, Gerasimos. 1988. Plato and Freud: Two Theories of Love. Oxford: B. Blackwell.
Sartre, Jean-Paul. 1993. Being and Nothingness: an Essay on Phenomenological Ontology, trans. Hazel E. Barnesnger.
New York: Washington Square Press.
Schopenhauer, Arthur. 1966. “The Metaphysics of Sexual Love,” The World as Will and Representation, vol. 2, trans.
E.F.J. Payne. New York: Dover, pp. 531-560.
Singer, Irving. 2009. The Nature of Love, vol. 1-3. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Soble, Alan (ed.). 1989. Eros, Agape, and Philia: Readings in the Philosophy of Love. New York: Paragon House.
Stendhal. 1991. “On Love,” The Philosophy of (Erotic) Love, ed. Robert Solomon. Lawrence, Kan.: University Press
of Kansas, p.132-139.
Wagoner, Robert E. 1997. The Meanings of Love: an Introduction to Philosophy of Love. Westport, Conn.: Praeger.
郭柏年，2020。《定見之外：生活日常的哲學短篇》。香港：牛津大學。
楊儒賓，2020。〈情歸何處：晚明情思想的解讀〉，《中國哲學與文化（第十八輯）：靈根自植
之後－－唐君毅哲學》。桂林，灕江。
楊聯芬，2016。《浪漫的中國：性別視角下激進主義思潮與文學 (1890-1940)》。北京：人民文學。
〔德〕理察・大衛・普列希特（Precht, Richard David），2021。《愛情的哲學》，闕旭玲譯。臺北 :
商周 。

Contact
Senior Lecturer
Name Dr. LAU Po Hei
Office KHB 410
Email phlau@cuhk.edu.hk