Kant on Sex, Love and Friendship

The basic aim of the conference is to understand how sex, love and friendship function in Kant’s philosophy, both individually and in conjunction with each other. While research on these issues has escalated in recent years, we still lack an inclusive outlook on the questions surrounding the concept of love, broadly conceived, in Kant. Even though Kant’s philosophy has been under vivid discussion for over 200 years, to our knowledge, nothing like ‘Kant on Sex, Love and Friendship’ has ever been organised.

The concepts of sex, love and friendship are more pertinent to Kant than often thought. They play an integral role in his conception of human life. The three notions are closely interrelated, and to an extent, overlapping. In different parts of his philosophy, Kant acknowledges that from the crudest impulses of nature to the highest ideals of virtue and moral happiness, the phenomenon of love permeates human existence. In particular, an understanding of how sex, love and friendship function in Kant’s practical philosophy is necessary for a comprehensive understanding of his ethical project.

The conference brings together a group of scholars and philosophers working on these topics to present their research, exchange and develop ideas, and to establish points of contact between their individual research approaches.


Confirmed Speakers: Martin Brecher (Bonn/Mannheim), Melissa Fahmy (Georgia), Jeanine Grenberg (St Olaf College), Christoph Horn (Bonn), Robert Louden (Southern Maine), Kate Moran (Brandeis), Pärttyli Rinne (St Andrews), Dieter Schönecker (Siegen), Jens Timmermann (St Andrews), Michael Walschots (St Andrews).