Posted by Eddie Sylvano on February 6, 2003, at 9:44:32
In reply to what's love got to do with it?, posted by likelife on February 6, 2003, at 0:16:37
> So then, what is love? Romantic, platonic, cosmic, seismic, whatever...
-------------------I don't think that there will ever be a definition that everyone agrees with, since it seems to mean such different things to different people, depending on what emotional needs they have.
For that matter, is love for a parent or child different than love for a mate? Being coldly scientific, I see love as an appreciation for the behavioral and physical qualities that we value most. Ultimately, it all stems from our desire to proliferate and protect our genes, and the genes of those whose qualities we identify with (genes similar to ours). We're trying to shape the course of humanity.
That's a biological idea. A psychological definition might be that love for others is a projection of the feelings we have for ourselves (hence the whole "have to love yourself first" notion). Ultimately, it's a selfish thing.
People balk at the idea that love has evolved from more simple, practical concerns on the organism's part, but the fact that it's so hard to say *why* we love someone is only evidence of the fact that we're motivated by factors which we don't conciously understand or control. I think that a lot of human emotion and experience is a rationalization we create for our own behavior, whose true origin is beneath our cognitive creation. It makes sense to us that we do things for a reason we intended, so we (amazingly easily) come up with reasons ("she's so nice", "her sense of humor is unique." "etc"). Look behind the excuses we give, and we're really only newly minted minds on top of more primitive systems.
All that said, I love my girlfriend dearly, and wouldn't trade that experience for anything.
poster:Eddie Sylvano
thread:36439
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20030201/msgs/36456.html