(in Polish) The Desire for Reality and the Reality of Desire: Sexuality as a Problem for Philosophy

The course is designed to identify and discuss various philosophical problems related to and stemming from human sexuality, desire, sex and gender. These problems have not been often addressed by philosophers, at least until more recent times, even though they pertain to some fundamental issues regarding philosophical anthropology, metaphysics, epistemology, political philosophy, ethics, aesthetics and philosophy of culture.

The texts to be analysed represent a great variety of approaches, methodologies, styles and viewpoints. The oldest ones come from Greek Antiquity and the newest date to the second decade of the 21st century. Instead of trying to support any claims made beforehand, the reading will focus on problem-oriented interpretation of the diversified material, searching for links between the broader problem fields and, in case of the older authors, evaluating their contemporary importance.

At the beginning of Plato’s „Republic”, the host of the meeting, Thrasymachus, expresses his satisfaction with reaching old age when “passions relax their hold” as it allows him to achieve “a great sense of calm and freedom” (329d, Jowett) and, this way, reach true reality. This statement may be seen as marking the beginning of the long tradition of downplaying desire and sexuality, along with the whole variety of problems related to them, by the philosophers. However, by claiming that people should rather exercise self-restraint than follow their desire and that males are better suited for this task then females, Plato actually opened an ongoing controversy regarding sexuality in its manifold aspects.

Problems related to desire, sex and gender seem to be especially important and explicit in today’s world, permeating contemporary political and social life, economy, media and culture. The seminar will be devoted to identifying, formulating and addressing these problems in a philosophical way, through a critical assessment of a large number of source texts. These texts represent a wide spectrum of positions, viewpoints, topics, methodologies and backgrounds. They date from Ancient Greece to the second decade of the current century. However, the nature of the inquiry will not be historical. The texts will be used to explore manifold problem fields intended to cover the topics important for understanding contemporary culture. Extracting problems from literature into these fields will be carried on simultaneously with establishing possible links and relations between the specific fields themselves.

Among the problem fields to be distinguished there are:

-a) The role of sexuality and desire within the general philosophical conceptions of the human being

-b) The role of sex and gender in our self-identification and social behavior

-c) Sexuality and gender as a matter of social convention, free choice or natural drive

-d) Sex, gender and the body

-e) Transformations of sexuality due to the new media, new technologies and new digital economies.

-f) Sex or gender as the root of inequality, persecution, exploitation

-g) Transformations of feminism and other emancipatory discourses

-h) Various ethics of relationships and sexual life

-i) Sex, gender, sexuality and religion

-j) Gender and epistemology/philosophy: is the knowing/philosophising subject neutral or gender-specific?

Michel Foucault – „History of Sexuality” (fragm.)

Paul B. Preciado – “Testo Junkie” (fragm.)

Euripides – „The Bacchae”

St. Augustine – „De Bono Conjugali” / “Confessions” (fragm.)

Susan Bordo – “Unbearable Weight” (fragm.)

Luce Irigaray – “This Sex Which Is Not One” (fragm.)

Edith Stein – “Essays on Woman” (fragm.)

John Stuart Mill – “The Subjection of Women”

Gilles Deleuze, Felix Guattari – “Anti-Oedipus” (fragm.)

Sigmund Freud – “Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality” (fragm.)

Donatien de Sade – “Philosophy in the Bedroom”

Plato – “Phaedrus” / “Symposium” (fragm.)

Raja Halwani, Alan Soble, Sarah Hoffman and Jacob M. Held (eds.) – “The Philosophy of Sex” (selected essays)

Louise Perry – “The Case Against the Sexual Revolution” (fragm.)

Simone de Beauvoir – “The Second Sex”

Jacques Derrida – “Geschlecht: Sexual Difference, Ontological Difference”

Maurice Merleau-Ponty – “Phenomenology of Perception” (fragm.)

Elisabeth Roudinesco – “Our Dark Side: A History of Perversion” (fragm.)

Acquired knowledge:

The student knows and understands

K_W04 specialistic philosophical terminology in a chosen foreign language (B2 level)

K_W08 in-depth manner – norms constituting and governing the social structures and institutions, along with the roots of these norms, their nature, their metamorphoses and the ways these norms influence human behavior

K_W10 in-depth manner – the role of philosophical reflection in shaping culture

K W11 in-depth manner – the relation between shaping of philosophical ideas and the changes in culture and socjety; understands the fundamental role of philosophical ideas for creating the works and institutions of culture

Acquired abilities

The student is able to:

K_U01 interpret the philosophical text on his own; creatively and innovatively comment on and confront theses from different texts

K_U02 evaluate the importance of certain theses for the given problem or reasoning

K_U03 analyze complex philosophical arguments, identify the theses and assumptions included in them and explain the logical and argumentative relations between theses

K_U05 disclose logical shortcomings and errors in spoken and written utterances and establish the influence of these shortcomings and errors for the persuasiveness of the arguments

K_U06 creatively and innovatively utilize philosophical and methodological knowledge in formulating hypoteses and constructing critical reasonings

K_U09 construct and creatively reconstruct reasonings from the perspectives of different philosophical positions, taking into account the types of argumentation characteristic for these positions and acknowledging similarities and differences between them

K_U16 trace the mutual dependencies between shaping the philosophical ideas and social or cultural processes as well as point out the relations between these dependencies

Acquired social competences:

The student is willing to:

K_K01 identify their own knowledge and abilities

K_K02 recognize the shortcomings in their own knowledge and abilities and find ways to remove these shortcomings

Active participation in the meetings, preparing an essay.

Number of absences: 2