February, 2021
Let's Talk About Love!
With Valentine's Day just around the corner, we have chosen Carrie Jenkins as our very first 'Philosopher of the Month'. Carrie Jenkins is a Professor and Canada Research Chair in Philosophy at the University of British Columbia.
In her recent book What Love is and What it Could Be, Jenkins discusses whether love is a biological phenomenon, a social phenomenon, or a combination of both. She argues that because love is partly social, there's an extent to which our collective actions can change what love really is. Jenkins has also written on a range of other issues in the philosophy of love, including (but not limited to) polyamory, whether romantic love is really a necessary part of a good life, and whether sex ed curriculums should be expanded to include material about love.
Here's one recent article she's written about whether successful romantic relationships are necessarily very happy ones (she thinks that they don't need to be as happy as we might have thought): https://www.newstatesman.com/2020/04/love-happiness-life-goals-wellbeing-eudaimonic
At the start of the article Jenkins asks: "In our most popular and enduring romantic stories, the ultimate reward for the protagonists is that they fall in love and live 'happily ever after'. But does being in love really mean being happy ever after? Does it mean being happy at all? Can’t love be sad? The question matters, especially to those of us who live through times and situations when happiness feels unattainable. If we can’t be happy, does that automatically mean love is also out of reach?"
You can follow @carriejenkins on Twitter and read more about her work here: https://www.carriejenkins.net/writing#essays