human love (philosophy)

HUMAN LOVE

RAY ANN B. CAGAMPANG, PhL., M.A.

SPIRITUAL FACULTIES

• Intellect - for apprehension, judgment , and reasoning

• Will – whereby he seeks the good as perceived by the intellect.

• Object of the Intellect – TRUE• Object of the Will – GOOD

ETYMOLOGY

• “love” – Germanic forms of the Sanskrit “lubh” which means “desire”

MISCONCEPTIONS OF LOVE

• Romance – equated with romantic feeling

• Possessing – “I Love You” has come to mean “You are Mine”

• Admiration – attracted to the good qualities of the other

• Sex – to be passionately attracted and bring to bed with me

REASONS OF MISCONCEPTIONS

1. Emphasis on being-loved rather than on loving

2. Emphasis on the object loved rather than on the faculty of loving

3. Confusion between the initial state and the permanent standing-in love

4. Reduction of love to its aspects

GREEK NOTIONS OF LOVE

• Eros (Greek erasthai) – a passionate, intense

desire for something, – sexual desire

(‘erotic’)–“Desire for

immortality”


• Philia –Affectionate regard

or friendly feeling towards others–“Desire to posses

spiritual realities”


• Agape – Paternal love of God for man

and of man for God – A fondness, and a passion

without the necessity of reciprocity

– “Desire to the idea of Absolute Beauty”

TRIARCHIC THEORY

• Robert Sternberg• Three Components:

1. Passion – Intense emotional arousal in the absence of substance

2. Intimacy – associated with close friendship and lacking the sexual overtones

3. Commitment - a choice to continue in the relationship

TRIARCHIC THEORY

1. Passion: infatuation2. Intimacy: liking or friendship3. Commitment: empty love4. Passion + intimacy: romantic love5. Intimacy + commitment:

companionate love6. Passion + commitment: fatuous love7. Passion + intimacy + commitment:

consummate love

VIEWS ON LOVE

• LOVE AS UNION

–Consists in the formation of some kind of union, a “we.”–Does not erase the

existence each agent

VIEWS ON LOVE

• LOVE AS ROBUST CONCERN

–Constituted by my concern for you –rejects the idea a

“we”

VIEWS ON LOVE

• LOVE AS VALUING– distinctive mode of valuing a person

1. Love as Appraisal of Value– Acknowledging and responding to the

value of the belovedPrice – compared to the value of other

things with pricesDignity – comparisons of relative value

become meaningless

VIEWS ON LOVE

1. Love as Appraisal of Value

Expression of Dignity

Response to the

Expression

VIEWS ON LOVE

2. Love as Bestowal of Value– To project a kind of intrinsic

value to the beloved Love – an attitude with no clear

objective,” whereas Liking – inherently teleological.– “love confers importance no

matter what the object is worth.”

KAROL WOJTYLA

• May 18, 1920 at Wadowice, Poland

• Love and Responsibility (1960)– on the human person, human

sexuality, love, and marriage– Analysis of Love (Chapt 2)• Metaphyiscal • Psychological • Ethical

METAPHYSICAL ANALYSIS OF LOVE

• LOVE– Is always a mutual

relationship between persons–based on attitudes

toward the good


• LOVE AS ATTRACTION

–Amor Complacentiae–Attraction: the

basic element in human love


• LOVE AS ATTRACTION• Attraction is of the essence of

love • But love is not merely

attraction• Not limited to inherent values,

but directed to the person as value

• Rooted in truth


• LOVE AS DESIRE

–Amor Concupiscentiae–Desire is of the essence of

love–Originates in a need and

aims at a good w/c it lacks–A man and a woman is

complementary


• LOVE AS DESIRE

–A longing for the person and not mere sensual desire–Not to be reduced to desire

itself (utilitarian attitude)– Sexual urge is oriented in

part to this completion


• LOVE AS GOODWILL

–Amor Benevolentiae–Directed to a genuine good

in the true way–Goodwill is free of self-

interest–More unconditional than

love as desire


• LOVE AS FRIENDSHIP

–Sympathy : emotional kind of love whereby one feels with another


• LOVE AS FRIENDSHIP

• Full commitment of the will to another person with a view of that person’s good


• BETROTHED LOVE–Deeper than friendship–Giving one’s own

person to another–Not merely sexual but

a personal significance


• BETROTHED LOVE• Full communication of

persons (communion personarum) – Full surrendering of the self w/o losing possession of the self.

• Marriage is the result of this form of love

PSYCHOLOGICAL ANALYSIS

• SENSUALITY AND LOVEMan naturally impresses

one another and elicit a response

Sensuality – response to the sexual values of the body as a potential object of enjoyment


• SENSUALITY AND LOVE– Has a “consumer orientation” towards

a body and touches the person only indirectly

– This “consumer orientation” is a matter of natural reflexes and is not evil

– Sensuality, thought not evil in itself, poses a threat and a temptation


• SENTIMENT AND LOVEA kind of desire for nearness,

proximity, exclusivity or intimacy (Affection)

Gives rise to “romantic love.”Can easily shift into the

territory of sensuality


• SENSUALITY AND SENTIMENT

– “raw materials” for love –Not love because they are blind

to the person (mere utilization and fixed on the feelings)–Must be integrated into true

interpersonal love in the light of truth and free choice

ETHICAL ANALYSIS

• PERSONALISTIC NORM

–Incomplete without ethical aspect–Considered as virtue.–Affirm the value of the

person

ETHICAL ANALYSIS

• Attraction to the sexual values must be subordinated to the dignity of the person

• Love should direct itself through free choice

RECIPROCITY OF LOVE

• Not just something in the man nor in the woman but is something common to them and unique

• Desires another person above all as the co-creator of love and not merely as the object of appetite

human love (philosophy)

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