Love is a
special
affection for someone or something, a
feeling or
emotion. Some describe it as a chemical reaction
in the human
brain. Various different types of love exist,
which are more or less related:
- love between
family members: parent's love of children,
etc.
- love of
friends
-
romantic love[?]
-
sexual love
- loving one another in
general
- loving something abstract
or inanimate
- loving one's nation or
homeland
What is common to all the
types of love, is a conscious or subconscious desire
towards someone or something or realisation of their
goals.
Some
languages, such as ancient
Greek, are better than
English at distinguishing between the different
senses in which the word love is used. For example,
ancient Greek has the words philia,
eros,
agape, and storge, meaning love
between friends, romantic/sexual love, sacrificial
(unreciprocated) love, and affection/familial love
respectively. However, with Greek as with many other
languages, it has been historically difficult to
separate the meanings of these words totally, and so
we can find examples of agape being used
with much the same meaning as eros.
The
Unification Church defines love in
philosophical terms as "the emotional force given by
the Subject to the Object". The church classifies
love into three types:
- parental love
- conjugal love
- children's love
-
- Much ado about
nothing
- -
William Shakespeare
-
- Love:
A term that has no meaning if defined.
- -
John Ralston Saul, The Doubter's
Companion
-
- Love:
A temporary insanity curable by marriage or
by the removal of the patient from the
influences under which he incurred the
disorder. This disease, like caries
and many other ailments, is prevalent only
among civilized races living under
artificial conditions; barbarous nations
breathing pure air and eating simple food
enjoy immunity from its ravages. It is
sometimes fatal, but more frequently to the
physician than to the patient.
- - The Devil's
Dictionary,
Ambrose Bierce.
Love was the
name of a
Los Angeles-based
rock and roll band of the late
1960s. See
Love (band).
