The two-day workshop Philosophy and Eros brings together philosophers from the University of Helsinki and the Institute for Philosophy and Social Theory. In an eclectic fashion, we will combine topical and historical readings of emotions, desire, passion and sexuality. What is postmodern love? Can we talk about eternal love? What can the Renaissance understanding of passion tell us about the human well-being nowadays? How did the figure of Socrates serve for the establishment of an unusual nexus between eros and logos? What is the relationship between drive, desire and love, seen through the psychoanalytic lens, and what when it intersects with the neoliberal domination? How to think philosophically about loneliness? Is boredom the other side of eros? Are pride and recognition an alternative to shame, or are these relationships more complex? Perversion will be viewed as a dynamic by which we limit openness between us by establishing moral and social norms. Seduction until recently seemed subversive – but is it really so, and is there a way for it to avoid the trap of reification? Where does the fantasy of “pure sexuality” come from? Is love an instrument of patriarchal control or can it also be a tool for liberation, and can we even think about sexual relations today outside of the relationships shaped by capitalism? The philosophy of emotions and the philosophy of sexuality intersect in reflections on topics that fundamentally frame our current understanding of eros.

The workshop will be in English, and the program and abstracts are attached.