The Concepts of Love - Assignment Example

Part One: 11 Concepts Unified Theories of Love This refers to the ideas about love put forward by Greek philosophers such as Socrates and Plato. They posited that while there were different kinds of love, they were also reflections of something more transcendent and divine. 2) Reductive Analysis of Love Sigmund Freud and Arthur Schopenhauer put forward a somewhat more reductionist explanation for love. They assert that the myriad permutations of love are nothing more than base emotions rooted in the human drive to procreate. 3) Unconditional Love The idea of unconditional love has often been associated with romantic love. However, it essentially puts forward the notion of loving without prerequisites, or conditions. Irigaray, Nozick and Delaney have attempted to articulate this idea in more modern terms. However, William Shakespeare’s Sonnet 116 presents this concept quite eloquently. 4) Idolatrous Love (Rorty on Spinoza) The idea that love can have a somewhat illusory nature was put forward by Rorty when she used Spinoza’s to help illustrate her concept. She argued that indulging in fantasy and unrealistic expectations of love are potentially dangerous because they distort our perception of love. Instead of an authentic experience, idolatrous love offers an illusion. 5) Romantic Ideology Over the centuries humanity has developed certain romanticized ideas of idealized male and female roles in relation to romantic love. Simone de Beauvoir and Marilyn Friedman, in particular, discuss the dangers of such romantic ideology and their relation to male chauvinism. 6) Importance of Embodied Interactions We live in an increasingly “cyberized” world. The Internet and social media have allowed “cyber-relationships” to become increasingly more frequent. However, Zygmunt Bauman and Hubert Dreyfus underscore the need for traditional, face-to-face interactions in building more lasting and exclusive relationships. They warn that online relationships run a very high risk of more ephemeral and promiscuous interactions, precluding lasting and substantial relationships from developing. 7) Montaignes Perfect Friendship Montaigne presents the idea that a perfect friendship emphasizes as an essential aspect of the friendship. He goes further to describe such a friendship as one characterized by such unconditional openness and trust that each individual’s need is met by the other. However, Montaigne is careful to distinguish such an ideal from homosexual love. Possible modern interpretations of this “perfect friendship” could be the ideas of “bromance” and “womance” that have become more prevalent nowadays. 8) Nurturing Touching (Thomas) Touch is one of the most concrete ways in which we express love and affection for one another. Although sexual intimacy is something associated with romantic love, Thomas argues that “nurturing touches” permeate all kinds of love. After all, we express our affection for those we care about through different kinds of physical contact. Such contact need not be sexual in order to express love. Consider the simple gesture of hugging is an expression that shows warmth, comfort and affection. 9) Intrinsic Links Between Love and Virtue Despite arguments to the contrary, Robert Solomon and Lawrence Blum have sought to prove an intrinsic link between love and virtue. Both Solomon and Blum reject the ideas that love is capricious and ultimately self-serving. Instead both have endeavored to examine how virtues are vital components of love. In order to become realized, love needs to be grounded in virtue. Otherwise the “love” we experience is an illusory facsimile rather than the real thing. 10) Duty of Beneficence (Kant) Although Kant did not believe that a subjective emotion such as love could not be applied to humanity as a whole, he did put forward the idea of the duty of beneficence. Kant posited that loving humanity at large was possible provided it was understood to be done in obedience to a rule requiring us to benefit people to the best of our capacity. In this sense, it is possible to morally obliged to use our abilities for the greater good and by extension feel love for humanity. 11) "Loving Perception" (Lugones) Maria Lugones puts forward the idea of love that also acknowledges the diversity between different cultures, genders and ethnicities. Such a concept of love recognizes the plurality that exists between people rather than emphasizing any notion of a non-differentiated bond of unity. Lugones is careful to articulate that love between different cultures, ethnicities, etc. is only possible if it is non-exploitative and allows independence rather than servitude. Part Two 1) It is impossible to understand the meaning of love without having had the experience of being in love. Discuss and evaluate this claim. Introduction: To ask if it is possible to understand something as complex and nuanced as love without first experiencing it, is the same as asking if it is possible to understand wetness without ever experiencing water. Unfortunately, love requires experience in order for it to be understood. It is impossible to understand the meaning of love without first having experienced it in the first place. Theory vs. Experience While it is no doubt possible to have a theoretical notion of love, experience gives us a more concrete understanding. It’s a lot like food. We can learn all there is to know about ice cream, for example, but until we actually taste it, there is no way of knowing whether or not we actually like or dislike it. In a very real sense, experience gives us greater insight into the nature of the thing being experienced. The old adage about experience being the best teacher holds true here. After all, how can we really understand something as nuanced and complex as love without having first experienced it? Regardless of whether our experience of love is positive or negative, experiencing love teaches us a great many things about it and how it affects virtually every aspect and moment of our lives. Perhaps our very first experience of love comes from our parents and by extension our family. Generally speaking, our relationship with our immediate family shapes the way we build relationships later in life. We learn through observation just as much as we do from experience. Observing how our parents relate to us and how they relate to one another has profound and lasting effects on how we eventually relate with ourselves and others in the future. Conclusion: They say that a thousand travelogues aren’t the same as one actual trip. Love is a nuanced and complex emotion. As such, experience is the only way that it can be fully understood. Experience offers us a glimpse into the myriad vicissitudes of love. Until actually experiencing it, love remains an abstract concept. Experience makes love concrete and to a certain extent more tangible. 2) Are there any connections between love of a unique person and love of humanity? Introduction: Who was it that said that if you save one person’s life, it was like saving the world? This begs the question, is there a connection between loving a specific person and loving humanity as a whole? The short answer is, yes. There is definitely a connection between the love of a unique person and love of humanity. Loving an individual helps us love humanity at large. Love of One, Love of All Loving a unique person is more specific and concrete. Loving humanity is much more abstract. The reason that the act of loving an individual helps us love humanity is because loving someone anchors such an abstract notion onto something concrete. It is a lot like ice cream. Loving a specific ice cream flavor helps us validate our love for ice cream in general. After all, unless we actually have a favorite ice cream flavor, we cannot really say we actually love ice cream. By extension, our love of country and generally sense of nationalism and patriotism is rooted in our love for our family and home. This explains why people are willing to lay down their lives during times of war. This isn’t necessarily for some abstract notion of “love of one’s country”. Rather, the abstract idea is made more concrete by love of specific individuals from one’s country. This helps explain why people are willing to put their lives at risk for complete strangers. They see their loved ones in the people they help. Conclusion: Our ability to love individuals helps us love humanity at large. This is because of how loving individuals anchors our experience in something tangible. In a way, our capacity to love humanity becomes deeper and more enriched because we see our loved ones in humanity at large. Loving even just one specific person, allows us to project that emotion over a larger canvass. Read More