Reflection
What is love?
Philosophers, poets, psychologists, sociologists, neuroscientists - everyone seems to have their own idea about what love is.
This is unsurprising in one way - love functions as one of those umbrella concepts, a guiding ethical and personal ideal - and so it captures a wide range of hopes and aspirations.
But it makes it hard to talk about love in a meaningful way, when we mean so many different things with just this one word.
Famously, the ancient Greeks had three different concepts of love.
Love can mean desire for something or someone, the attraction that you feel for aesthetic reasons. The Greeks called this eros.
Love can mean solidarity with someone - the motivation to support, encourage and promote another person. The Greeks called this philia.
Love can mean giving, an unconditional and sacrificial bestowing value on someone that they don’t have inherently but that arises from the giver. The Greeks called this agape.
And, of course, l…
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