Those Who Have Dared to Hymn Love’s Praises: A Symposium on Black Philosophies of Love | FFL

Why does a culture saturated with love stories so rarely treat love with philosophical seriousness? In this First Friday lecture hosted by the University of Chicago Graham School, Basic Program instructor Paul Cato traces Black philosophies of love from Plato's Symposium to Toni Morrison, arguing that love is not a sentimental escape from injustice but a demanding practice that can clarify, rather than soften, our vision of the world. Beginning from a puzzling line in the Symposium – that love has "hardly been hymned at all" – Cato asks what Black writers reveal when they dare to do so. Cato opens with Phaedrus's speech in the Symposium and sets it alongside the poetry of Phillis Wheatley, showing how classical accounts of love as ennobling and heroic find both resonance and complication in the Black literary tradition. He then turns to bell hooks, whose account of love as a willful, virtuous practice reshapes what we expect from education, responsibility, and political life. For hooks, love is not a feeling that happens to us but a commitment that must be made and remade. The lecture's central readings move through two novels. In Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man, Cato examines what the blues aesthetic reveals about "phony forgiveness" and the difference between performing harmony and actually practicing love across racial division. In Toni Morrison's Beloved, he develops Morrison's concept of "thick love", the fierce, dangerous, sustaining love that slavery tried to make impossible, and asks what it means to reclaim intimacy under conditions of violence. Billie Holiday closes the lecture, her blues tradition capturing something about love's survival of devastation that Plato cannot reach. The session closes with an extended Q&A exploring love and democracy, social media, Dostoyevsky's notion of "active love" and its influence on Baldwin, Ellison, and Wright. Key questions explored in this lecture: 1. How does the claim in Plato's Symposium that love has "hardly been hymned at all" frame Cato's project on Black philosophies of love? 2. In what ways do Wheatley, King, Ellison, Morrison, and Baldwin expand or challenge classical accounts of love? 3. How does bell hooks's account of love as a willful, virtuous practice reshape discussions of education, responsibility, and political life? 4. What does Invisible Man reveal about "phony forgiveness," false harmony, and the difference between avoiding conflict and practicing love? 5. How do the blues tradition and Billie Holiday complicate sentimental pictures of love? 6. What distinguishes Dostoyevsky's "active love" from more abstract ideals, and how does it inform debates about loving the oppressor and sustaining democratic life? Chapters 00:00:09 Welcome and Introduction 00:04:47 Introducing the Project: Why Hymn Love's Praises? 00:07:34 Plato's Symposium and the Western Canon on Love 00:11:51 From Classical Myth to Black Philosophies of Love 00:13:18 Phaedrus and Phillis Wheatley 00:18:53 bell hooks and Love as a Willful, Virtuous Practice 00:23:43 Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man and Phony Forgiveness 00:29:46 Toni Morrison, Thick Love, and Beloved 00:41:45 Billie Holiday, the Blues, and Surviving Through Love 00:47:11 Q&A: Love, Democracy, and Social Media 00:59:35 Q&A: Loving the Oppressor and the Strength of Love 01:10:44 Q&A: Dostoyevsky's "Active Love" and Its Legacy 01:13:04 Closing Reflections and Applause About the Speaker: Paul Cato (He/Him) is a Ph.D. candidate in the Committee on Social Thought currently studying religion, literature, and intellectual history. His research focuses on discourses on love and intersubjectivity, particularly those developed by African American intellectual James Baldwin. He joined the Basic Program instructional staff in March 2022. About the Basic Program The First Friday Lecture series is presented by the Basic Program of Liberal Education for Adults. The Basic Program is a four-year certificate program for intellectually curious learners who want to read and discuss the Great Books in a serious, welcoming community. Through close reading and weekly conversation, students engage works of literature, philosophy, history, and social thought by authors such as Plato, Aristotle, Dante, Shakespeare, de Tocqueville, Woolf, and Morrison—guided by outstanding instructors, with no prerequisites, tests, papers, or grades. Offered online and in person, the program invites adults from all backgrounds to deepen their thinking, and join a lifelong community of readers. Learn more at https://graham.uchicago.edu/program/basic-program-of-liberal-education/ About Graham The Graham School brings the best of the University of Chicago to lifelong learners seeking discovery and discernment. Through programs in the Great Books, the liberal arts, and advanced leadership, we welcome learners who seek to deepen their understanding of the world and lead examined lives of purpose. Learn more at https://graham.uchicago.edu