Philosophy of Love and Desire - Assignment Example

A relationship simply cannot count as love if the two people involved are not physically and emotionally compatible with each other. Sufficient Condition: Two people are said to be in love if they are taken by a strong feeling that they simply cannot live without each other. That is if two people are possessed by a strong feeling that they cannot live without each other, than it is sufficient to establish that the two people are in love with each other. Socratic Definition of Love: Love may be defined as a relationship in which the two people are physically and emotionally compatible with each other and are possessed by a strong feeling that they simply cannot live without each other.

If the two people in love are not physically and emotionally compatible with each other than they are not in love. Similarly if the two people in a relationship can do without each other than they are not in love. These two criteria are sufficient two include within their ambit a range of love relationships. Section B First Objection to the Definition of Love: In many Asian and African cultures, there is a tradition of arranged marriage in which the two people are made to marry each other in consonance with the desires of their families and communities and many of these individuals though not being physically and emotionally compatible and being able to live without each other, still manage to fall in love with each other.

Then it could be said that the marital relationship between these two people is sans love, though for discernible purposes they may be taken to be in love with each other. Defense of the Definition: There is no denying the fact that emotional and physical compatibility and a strong sense that the two people cannot do without each other in a relationships tend to be two necessary and sufficient conditions for love. In some cultures as in the Western culture the two people involved in a love relationship are able to or allowed to establish their emotional and physical compatibility before marriage and are allowed to verify as to whether they can do without each other before marriage, so as to assure that they are in love with each other.

There are other cultures as in the above mentioned objection where the two people are married as per the familial and social wishes and it is after marriage that the two people tend to discover their emotional and physical compatibility and a sense of belonging to each other. Thereby the two people in an arranged marriage can also fall in love with each other and are required to fulfill the before mentioned necessary an sufficient conditions to establish that they are in love. Thereby, an arranged marriage does not make an exception.

Second Objection to the Definition of Love: What about the relationship between a prostitute and her customer, this relationship could be deemed to be love as it satisfies both the necessary and sufficient conditions for love. A prostitute and her customer are physically and emotionally compatible. That is why they are able to make love to each other. They also cannot do without each other. A prostitute cannot do without her client as she draws her sustenance from him. The client also cannot do without the prostitute for that is why he agrees to pay her to make love to her.

This is indeed a love relationship as it satisfies the above mentioned definition of love. Defense of the Definition: The relationship be