Exam I

Posted: Wed, Feb 12, 2025

Logistics

  • Our first exam is Monday, February 24, in our usual classroom and during our usual class time.
  • The first part of the course lexicon is due in hard copy at the end of the exam. This is the typed/cleaned-up version, which should include a list of terms with their definitions/explanations/illustrations.
  • The exam is closed book and closed notes, except that you are allowed to consult your own course lexicon.
  • The exam will consist of six short answer questions and an essay question.
  • If you need a quiet room, extended time, etc., please reach out to me by the end of Wednesday, February 19.

Possible Essay Prompts

Two of the following prompts will be selected to appear on the exam, and you will be asked to answer one of the two. An excellent essay should (a) demonstrate a clear grasp of the relevant course materials, (b) develop a clear, thoughtful, reasoned, and structurally complete analysis, and (c) draw on but go beyond our class discussions in some way. Aim for 500–700 words.

  1. Is the requirement of sexual exclusivity consistent with romantic love?
  2. “Authentic love must be founded on reciprocal recognition of two freedoms” (Beauvoir [1949] 2011, 706). Explain and discuss.
  3. To what extent is love political?

Advice:

  • Imagine that you are writing to a friend not enrolled in the class, rather than to me as the instructor. Don’t presume familiarity with the readings. Explain your key terms. Use clear, direct, and simple prose. Don’t mistake obscurity for profundity.
  • Don’t be afraid to speak in your own voice. I want to hear it. Use the first-perron pronouns. Have an opinion. But don’t confuse assertions with arguments. Try to persuade your audience with reasons that are acceptable to not just yourself.
  • Don’t merely summarize/describe/report. Your aim is to show that you not only understand our materials and discussions well but have thought carefully and critically about them on your own. Refer to our texts, authors, and class discussions where appropriate (no citation style necessary).
  • Don’t repeat the prompt. Think about how you want to introduce your discussion.
  • Be organized. Have a plan. Make an outline. Write as legibly as you can.

Topics It Would Make Sense to Review

Conceptual analysis

  • Necessary and sufficient conditions
  • Counterexamples
  • Teleological analysis (a kind of conceptual analysis)

Plato, Symposium

  • Symposia as a social setting and their functions
  • Pederastic relationships and their norms
  • Erôs vs. philía vs. agapé
  • The people in, and the events leading up to, this particular symposium
  • Puzzle about the complex opening
  • Phaedrus’ teleological analysis of Love
  • Pausanias and Eryximachus on two kinds of Love
  • Aristophanes on the origin of Love
  • Socrates’ objection to Agathon
  • Socrates’ Diotima on pregnancy
  • The Ascent/Ladder of Love
  • Alcibiades’ love for Socrates

Jenkins, Sad Love

  • Limerence vs. love
  • The paradox of romantic happiness
  • Static vs. dynamic love

The politics of love

  • Beauvoir on love as a patriarchal institution
  • Card’s arguments against marriage and motherhood
  • Lorde on the power of the erotic
  • Marvin on t4t

Love and sex

  • McKeever on sexual exclusivity
  • Brunning and McKeever on asexuality