The concept of love has been an everlastingly a very indefinable topic. It is a definition and sense that philosophers, psychologists, and biologists have been seeking since the beginning of time. Conflicts have been paid and struggled over it, while friendships have been introduced and have concluded because of this idea. But what exactly is love, and why is it important to define this mystery (Chapman, 2011)? Before loving any other person, a human being starts learning to love by loving his own self. According to Erich Fromm, self-love or love for oneself is very important for a person’s societal and emotional development. Before starting loving his inner-self, he needs to have some self-esteem and self-confidence. If a human being is open to criticisms and takes any comment sportingly or motivationally to make himself better, than he can become less demanding to others, which is very important for the formation of being a better person.
Those who don’t like themselves, obtain other connections that can strengthen their low self-esteem.
A loving relationship has the quality to comprise different kinds of friendship, sometimes a sensual need, significance over other interactions, loving to the point of great self-sacrifice. A relationship might start with a sense of friendship, but later it can develop into romantic love. There is actually no specific or commonly established definition of love in this world.
Expressions of love and actions differ throughout time and
Love is unique in its striking ability to be a driving force in dictating interpersonal relationships. It patterns behavior and orients individuals towards their distinct, unique attractions. According to Velleman, love penetrates deeper than one’s qualities; it extends to one’s rational will, or the essence of a person. To him, though love appears to have particularity, it is also a moral emotion. Kolodny subscribes to the relationship theory, asserting that an ongoing, interpersonal, and historical relationship with a relative is a part of the reason for love. In Kolodny’s view, the existence of the true self is irrelevant, as is the morality of love. Both Velleman and Kolodny disprove the quality theory; however, their perceptions of love and its morality differ. I believe that Kolodny is correct in his view that morality is irrelevant to love and that there must be factual reasons for love. Although it is enticing to believe that one is attracted to the essence of another, the essence is not motivation enough for love. The relationship theory takes into account the motivation needed to love a particular person from a historical, interpersonal, and ongoing perspective.
Have you ever felt the feeling of butterflies in your stomach or heard the phrase “my heart skipped a beat for you”? As children, we grew up learning from our elders and experiencing new beginnings in life. Much of our knowledge has been brought upon by what we see and hear, rather of what we know. Many important decisions we make in our life has to do with what our feelings show us. Love is an important matter in our life because it motivates us in different ways. Love can be shown through emotions or even through actions. What is a valuable definition of love? A brief definition of love can be said to be a variety of different feelings or attitudes that ranges from interpersonal affection to pleasure. In other words, to me love is when
The idea of universal love is one that is prevalent in the media. With the news filled with grim stories and horror many people are calling to the idea of loving everyone. Tensions are high concerning race relations, gender discrimination, and sexual orientation. Many in the general public are calling for humanity to embrace humanity. Many in the general public are asking “why we can’t just love one another”? Stephen T. Asma tackles this idea of love in his article published in the New York Times. Asma discusses two different ideas about universal love before offering his own take on the subject. Just as Asma states, universal love is a myth and closer personal relationships should be favored.
In conclusion, I have given my complete interpretation on Robert Nozick’s writing, “Love’s Bond”. I have explained to the best of my knowledge the nature of love, the reason why in romantic love there is no desire of trading up, and lastly why it is incoherent to ask what the value of love is to an individual.
Love can be modernly defined as the lifelong commitment one makes to another person, while always regarding the highest good for that person (Chastain, 2008). According to Ann Landers, love is a friendship that has caught fire. Much like a plant, love takes root
By definition; love is a profoundly tender, passionate affection for another person. Love can be interrupted in many ways. Were we ever taught love or is it just a natural feeling towards a person? Some say you'll know the meaning of love when you fall in love, yet some don't believe in love at all.
Love is a feeling of strong or constant affection for a person (Dictionary 1). Love is what is known as the “universal language”. There are so many ways love can be interpreted. The central message that the comfort humans receive, and the shyness they feel for an individual are compartments of love that may not always be touched on in poetry.
The human idea of love is quite possibly the most misunderstood in today’s society. Love can be between a man and woman, mother/father and their kids, or even really good friends. However, these relationships of love go through many interactions and stages to start and progress. Many psychological events must occur and be worked through in order to be successful. All relationships must endure the five perspectives of human behavior. These perspectives are biological, learning, social and cultural, cognitive, and psychodynamic influences.
The original study “The nature of love” was focused on gaining more understanding of human development (Hock, 2013). It involved a series of experiments done by Harry Harlow in 1958, in which he
If I, as a teenager, were to describe love, it would be having a sense of security in someone. When we love someone it usually means we can depend on them and they will be there for us in times of growth, happiness, sadness and loss. In my mind, love also means wanting what is best for someone and encouraging them to be their best self.
Love is a feeling between two people that comes with lots of emotions, respect, commitment, trust, honesty, and many other values. In the story The Great
Love is also defined in the dictionary as "strong affection," "warm attachment," and "unselfish loyal and benevolent concern for others" (439). All of these definitions are completely correct, but the dictionary does not explain how it feels to love someone. The reason that an explanation for this feeling is not found in the dictionary may be because love is so different for each individual person. In my experience, "strong affection" does not even begin to cover the sensation and emotions a person feels when he or she is in love. Love is compared to "the extraordinary sun / splashing its light / into astonished trees" in Denise Levertov's "Love Poem" (2-4). Like the sun, love is great and bright and fills a person with extreme joy. Love is greater than anything else a person could ever experience. A lover can even be better than a summer's day, as the speaker in Shakespeare's poem suggests. He compares his lover to a summer's day by saying that she is "more
He also believes falling in love is not a conscious choice nor does it encourage personal growth. The feelings that come from the idea of falling in love eventually cease and by following the “myth of romantic love”, one can experience damaging consequences by realizing their “one” they thought they are meant to be with was not bound by true love as previously thought. Ultimately, he identifies that the only good thing to come from falling in love is that it makes someone care about another individual enough to want to truly love them.
A close-knit loving bond between two people can begin with a friendship. Whether it is a friendship between two males, two females, or one male and one female, these friendships will develop into love. In no way is it a romantic love, but this type of love connects and bonds friends. Friends may move away or friendships may wane, but the love between the two people burns on forever.
Upon reading Erich Fromm’s The Art of Loving, I gained a better understanding of what love really is. Fromm’s book puts love into perspective. He begins with several facts with regards to the attitude in which people treat love. They are the problems of how to be loved, the object to love as well as the confusion between the initial experience of falling in love and the permanent state of being in love, which had a great impact on me, as far as thinking about what love is.