Hitting the Bars with Aristotle: Dating in a Time of Uncertainty

Document Type

Book Chapter

Publication Date

2010

Abstract

Hitting the Bars with Aristotle: Dating in a Time of Uncertainty

What does a man do when he suddenly finds himself single? In some ways there have never been more choices available. He can hang out in bars getting slowly smashed, Bogart style, in the hope that Ingrid Bergman might walk through the door. He can go onto the singles scene and meet other equally desperate people and maybe even hook himself a stalker. Alternatively, for those who lack social skills, or are too hideously disfigured and malodorous to go out in public, there is always the Internet. But this wealth of choices belies one fact: we live in a time of profound confusion. The old ways of being a man have gone, unlamented and unlikely to return. The SNAG (Sensitive New Age Guy) never really existed outside the imagination of women's magazine editors and nobody really trusted him anyway.

The truth is that no straight man with a modicum of decency really knows what to do. Most of us have tried to do what mothers, sisters and female friends have taught us, and be nice. We paid lots of compliments, bought gifts, meals and drinks and generally tried to offend as little as possible, in the hope perhaps that we might bore women into submission. All the time we felt a gnawing unease that the old saw was true and that women really did prefer jerks. We know that partly because we watched our mothers, sisters and female friends dating them. [From the Author]

Dating - Philosophy for Everyone: Flirting With Big Ideas

Progressing from the first flirtatious moment of eye contact to the selection of a 'mate', this enlightening book offers playful philosophical explorations of the dating game for anyone who has dated, is dating, or intends to date again. It offers amusing and enlightening philosophical insights into the dating game. It helps demystify coupling in the 21st century for those young daters just entering the fray, and those veterans returning to the game. It features contributions from a wide range of disciplines, including philosophy, psychology, communications, theology, economics, health sciences, professional ethics, and engineering and applied sciences. It opens with Carrie Jenkins' ground-breaking essay, 'The Philosophy of Flirting', first published in The Philosopher's Magazine.

ISBN: 9781444330229

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Dating - Philosophy for Everyone: Flirting With Big Ideas may be accessed from the publisher here

Dating - Philosophy for Everyone: Flirting With Big Ideas may be accessed from the National Library of Australia here

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