Love and Culture by W. B. Macomber was transcribed from lectures given for the undergraduate introductory philosophy course at the University of California at Santa Barbara in 1971. It was further edited by Macomber and self-published in 1972 for use as the basic text in the introductory course. It presents Macomber's interpretation of the seven speeches in Plato's Symposium, which Macomber viewed as encapsulating the primary stages of development in the Western philosophical tradition. More about Macomber and this text can be found in the commentary here. The chapters will be added to this web site (beginning January 2008) at the rate of approximately one per month over the next several months as I convert them from hard copy to digital text.

LOVE AND CULTURE

TABLE OF CONTENTS

*)  INTRODUCTION

1)  THE THREE ECSTASIES OF THE SPIRITUAL LIFE

2)  HOW BEST TO WASTE YOUR TIME

3)  PHAEDRUS: THE LOGOS OF ROMANTICISM

4)  HOW TO WIN AT CHESS AND LIFE

5)  ROMANTICISM, GENIUS, AND CRIMINALITY

6)  NOUS AND THUMOS

7)  WHY YOU SHOULD NOT RIP OFF MY STEREO

8)  A CRITIQUE OF MORALITY

9)  WHERE L.B.J. AND NIXON WENT WRONG

10) PAUSANIAS: THE LOGOS OF EROTICISM

11) THINKING AND LIFE

12) ERYXIMACHUS AND SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY AND SUBURBIA

13) ARISTOPHANES: THINKING TURNS ON ITSELF

14) DEPTH AND SURFACE

15) SOCRATES AND THE ASCENT OF LOVE

16) ALCIBIADES DISPARU