Does love exist?

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08-02-2011, 07:30 AM
Panglossian

Maybe love is what's there when everything superficial has been stripped away.
08-02-2011, 07:36 AM
Buh4Bee

I'm not so sure if it is subjective, if it is the type of love that is shared between two people or a family.
08-02-2011, 08:39 AM
Alexander III

I will say insouciantly that people who have fallen in love know what it is and that it exists and that people who have not fallen in love are the people who don't believe that love exists. Of course people who have known love can try and explain it to those who have not, but it will never be explainable, much like an individuals relationship with the stars - and the people who don't believe it exists can only ever find out that it exists by falling in love - there is no other way.
08-02-2011, 11:54 AM
Ecurb

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alexander III

I will say insouciantly that people who have fallen in love know what it is and that it exists and that people who have not fallen in love are the people who don't believe that love exists. Of course people who have known love can try and explain it to those who have not, but it will never be explainable, much like an individuals relationship with the stars - and the people who don't believe it exists can only ever find out that it exists by falling in love - there is no other way.

Of course "eros" is only one kind of love. The Greeks (and C.S. Lewis) also identified storge, philia, and agape (loosely translated as friendship, family love, and charity).

I think most of those of us who are parents would agree that philia is at least as powerful as eros. Read Alexander Hemon's recent New Yorker story about his daughter who died, for example.
08-02-2011, 12:25 PM
caddy_caddy

I think the word love is so vague and general. In Arabic language we have more than 20 words to describe love according to its level and symptoms.
Here's a very special book written 1000 years ago on love . The translator says it's on Arab love! So if u think love is love since the dawn of history u can have a look at it.
http://www.muslimphilosophy.com/hazm/dove/ringdove.html
08-02-2011, 01:07 PM
Alexander III

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ecurb

Of course "eros" is only one kind of love. The Greeks (and C.S. Lewis) also identified storge, philia, and agape (loosely translated as friendship, family love, and charity).

I think most of those of us who are parents would agree that philia is at least as powerful as eros. Read Alexander Hemon's recent New Yorker story about his daughter who died, for example.

Right you are, as a son, I would also say that Philia is the strongest, but the Philia is very different to Eros - if anything Eros is like burning Magnesioum and Philia is burning coal.
08-02-2011, 04:29 PM
G L Wilson

Love is love, lust is another thing.
08-02-2011, 04:39 PM
cl154576

What if the universe was created by a God who hated? Although I do not believe in any sort of Creator.
08-02-2011, 05:05 PM
G L Wilson

Quote:

Originally Posted by cl154576

What if the universe was created by a God who hated? Although I do not believe in any sort of Creator.

He can't have hated to create the Universe.
08-02-2011, 06:55 PM
Delta40

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ecurb

Of course "eros" is only one kind of love. The Greeks (and C.S. Lewis) also identified storge, philia, and agape (loosely translated as friendship, family love, and charity).

I think most of those of us who are parents would agree that philia is at least as powerful as eros. Read Alexander Hemon's recent New Yorker story about his daughter who died, for example.

I know the power of philia! The strongest of forces!
08-02-2011, 07:05 PM
G L Wilson

Quote:

Originally Posted by Delta40

I know the power of philia! The strongest of forces!

Mateship is a kind of love.
08-02-2011, 07:10 PM
Delta40

Quote:

Originally Posted by G L Wilson

Mateship is a kind of love.

The 'good on ya mate' type? Cameraderie definitely contains an element of affection.
08-02-2011, 07:19 PM
G L Wilson

Quote:

Originally Posted by Delta40

The 'good on ya mate' type? Cameraderie definitely contains an element of affection.

I was thinking more about mateship in war.
08-02-2011, 08:10 PM
cl154576

Quote:

Originally Posted by G L Wilson

He can't have hated to create the Universe.

No, there could be some perverted God who created the Universe to better inflict pain. Happiness also proceeds from that naturally, since someone who has nothing to compare pain to cannot identify pain as pain.
08-02-2011, 11:09 PM
G L Wilson

Quote:

Originally Posted by cl154576

No, there could be some perverted God who created the Universe to better inflict pain. Happiness also proceeds from that naturally, since someone who has nothing to compare pain to cannot identify pain as pain.

Where is the pleasure in pain without joy?

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