Love, sex and existentialism

Love has long been defined as the moment when two severed souls reunite in sexual and psychological bliss. But the idea of soulmates is by no means the final word. Søren Kierkegaard, Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir wrote about how love and sex reveal who we really are and who we want to be. Join us this evening to explore the nature of love, to what extent we can choose to love, and whether true harmony of bodies and souls is possible – or even desirable.

Skye Cleary

Speaker

Skye Cleary joins the Sophia Club fresh from the publication of her latest book How to Be Authentic: Simone de Beauvoir and the Quest for Fulfillment (2022), an illuminating introduction to Beauvoir and her philosophy’s relevance to modern life. Skye’s writing has featured in leading publications including The Paris Review, The Times Literary Supplement, The Conversation, Aeon and Psyche. Her philosophical interests range from the philosophy of love and sex, to that of leadership and management; she teaches these at Columbia University and City University of New York.

Skye is on Twitter at @skye_cleary and Mastodon at @Skye_Cleary@mastodon.social.

Darian Donovan Thomas

Artist

Everything Darian Donovan Thomas creates is by design – fiercely, empathically, unapologetically. His work as a composer, multi-instrumentalist and interdisciplinary artist, revolves around the combination of genres and mediums into a singular, expressive, inclusive vocabulary. Darian has exercised his expansive craft reaching worldwide acclaim with artists including Moses Sumney, Arooj Aftab and Balún, he has held multiple composer fellowships and studied with distinguished composers Julia Wolfe and David Lang, among others.

Darian can be found on Instagram at @darian.donovan.thomas and on Twitter at @DarianDThomas.

Sam Dresser

Host

Sam Dresser is a senior editor at Aeon+Psyche. He enjoys, to a fault, taking interminable train rides and drinking good Scotch, both of which pair beautifully with what we do at Sophia Club New York: talk about meaningful ideas in a lively, playful way.