Archive episode [Season 1 Episode 5]: Love drugs and chemically enhanced break-ups: Vulnerability, trust, and love

The discussion of this episode is inspired by the book Love Drugs: The Chemical Future of Relationships by Brian D Earp and Julian Savulescu (January 2020), Stanford University Press.

As a guest for this episode, we talk to Postgraduate Researcher Sophie Goddard. Her research is focused on the philosophy of love, particularly on the sacrifices we make in loving relationships.

Sophie argues against the development of "anti-attachment drugs", a particular type of "break-up drug" based on the idea that vulnerability is a key element to our development as humans and, more specifically, as loving humans. Vulnerability gives rise to care, trust, and intimacy, core elements to establish a romantic relationship. Getting rid of it, or suppressing it by switching off our attachment capacity, might take away from us an essential part of our human nature.

Released 2 June 2020. Presented by Gabriela Arriagada Bruneau.

Ethics Untangled is produced by IDEA, The Ethics Centre at the University of Leeds.

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