Seduction: Philosophy, Aesthetics, Ethics (Live Online)

From Plato to Kierkegaard to Baudrillard, the figure of seduction has been theorized—and put to work—as a metaphor for education, a mark of existential despair, a form of symbolic subversion, an art, a weapon, a source of power, a means of resistance, even an ethical confrontation with the limits of self-sovereignty. What accounts for the flexibility and power of this figure—to challenge and disrupt systems of meaning, to undermine normative power structures, to push us to interrogate ethical boundaries and embrace risk? And, conversely: what happens when seduction is instrumentalized, whether by algorithm or for politically spurious ends? In this course, we will examine the figure of seduction through a range of philosophical, literary, and psychological sources, asking how our understanding of seduction—its significance, use, and value—has evolved from antiquity to the technologically-mediated present. What does it mean to portray seduction, as Kierkegaard does, as a tension between the aesthetic and the ethical life? How can we, with Baudrillard, understand seduction’s ability to subvert systems of power and representation? And how has the digital age reconstrued this ability, putting seduction into service on behalf of the market? What kind of framework does seduction afford for an investigation of cultural, technological, and ethical crises across a variety of historical and cultural contexts? Possible readings include Plato, Kierkegaard, Baudrillard, Roland Barthes, Sigmund Freud, Jacques Lacan, bell hooks, Marguerite Duras, Laura Kipnis, and George Bataille.