Students will learn to conceptually analyse questions about the relations between love, knowledge and power in scientifically informed health care. Students will learn to reflect on the ways in which historical conceptions of (parental) love can be used to improve our understanding of professional youth care.

The philosophy of love, historical as well as contemporary, is a rich field that currently seems to enjoy a revival. Unfortunately this literature is almost never applied to our practices in youth care, practices that are dominated by a rather scientistic approach that does not seem to leave room for love. Yet, perhaps surprisingly, many contributions to the philosophy of love, such as those about the differences between parental, romantic, and compassionate love, have obvious relevance to our contemporary practices in youth care.
In this course we will read recent contributions to the philosophy of love that discuss six striking features of love: excitement, selflessness, commitment, hospitality, intimacy and grief.
In class we shall contrast these features of love with their scientific counterparts, discussing contemporary developments in actual healthcare: unhappiness, medicalisation, prevention, insurance, self-management, and the idea of a completed life.