Troy Jollimore, “Love’s Vision” (Princeton UP, 2011)
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What is the main thesis of Troy Jollimore’s book *Love’s Vision*?
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Hello and welcome to New Books in Philosophy, a podcast channel with the New Books Network, where we discuss with philosophers their new ideas as expressed in their newly published books. I'm Carrie Figder and I'm co host of the channel along with Robert Talise. Love, that is being loved and loving in the way two otherwise unrelated persons can be, is a kind of experience that almost everyone values intrinsically. As we often say or sing Love makes the world go round, and all you need is love. But what sort of experience is loving? What more can we say about it that will illuminate the kind of experience that it is? In his groundbreaking new book Love's Vision from Princeton University Press, he Troy Jollymore, who is professor of philosophy at California State University at Chico
argues that love is a matter of vision in that it literally transforms the eyes. It is an emotion that is partly but essentially characterized by the special kind of visual experience that it brings about. This visual experiential view of love makes love a kind of emotion that is partly responsive to reasons and to the claims of morality. On Jollymore's account, we do love for reasons. But because love is responsive to reasons, some puzzles arise, for example the If Brad loves Angelina because she possesses some set of features, Then isn't he rationally obligated to love anyone who has those features? And rationally obligated to stop loving Angelina? If she loses any or all of those features. And seeing love as a visual experiential phenomenon.
also raises special epistemic and moral problems. If love's vision makes us blind to the flaws of the beloved, the Doesn't that violate basic epistemic norms under which we are supposed to track the truth as closely as we can? And if love's vision is a kind of tunnel vision in which the beloved is the center of our universe. Aren't we apt to ignore the legitimate needs of others to which we should respond given basic ethical norms? Troy responds to these and other puzzles in this intriguing volume One that is likely to generate a lot of discussion for the way he stakes out a bold new view of the nature of love. So let's bring Troy on the line to explain what love's vision is all about. Hello Troy. Yes, hi.
Hi. Welcome to New Books in Philosophy. Okay, and thank you for agreeing to uh be interviewed. So we're talking with Troy Jol Jollymore from Cal State University Chico, um, about your new book Love's Vision from Princeton University Press. Um so before before we get into the the meat of the interview, um maybe you can say something about your philosophical b background, how you got interested in philosophy, um and maybe something also about your your background in poetry, um, because you are a award winning poet as well as a philosopher.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is the main thesis of Troy Jollimore’s book *Love’s Vision*?
0:00–8:03
2
How does Jollimore explain the visual‑experiential nature of love?
8:03–15:09
3
Why does Jollimore argue that love is responsive to reasons rather than being anti‑rational?
15:09–22:31
4
What are the “universality”, “promiscuity”, “trading‑up”, and “inconstancy” puzzles for a rational view of love?
22:31–31:10
5
How does love create epistemic blind‑spots or “illusory qualities”?
31:10–39:53
6
In what ways can love lead to moral conflicts or partiality toward others?
39:53–48:42
7
How does Jollimore reconcile love’s visual bias with its capacity to promote moral knowledge?
48:42–57:45
8
What future projects does Jollimore plan after *Love’s Vision*?
57:45–1:05:01
Speakers
2 identifiedMore from New Books in Philosophy
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