Explore the complexities of love as discussed by philosophers like Aristotle, Kant, and Lévinas, and understand its various dimensions.
Extract
[...] The expression 'to make the heart beat' illustrates this opinion very well. But common experience shows us to what extent love raises many questions. To love is a transitive verb that necessarily calls for a complement. We love something or someone. Loving therefore supposes the existence of an object of love. When it is a matter of loving someone, the sincerity of love is sometimes called into question. It happens that one can imagine that a love is carried by interest, for example by financial interest. [...]
[...] Thus, Aristotle distinguishes three types of love: love of interest, based on the benefits it provides; love of pleasure, which is established because the relationship is pleasant; and virtuous love, which is established by virtue of the qualities of the other. This gradation certainly allows us to reintroduce an ethical dimension, but it maintains the idea that all love involves a share of interest. This interested dimension of love is particularly striking when love turns into passion. Let's take the example of a stamp collector. By definition, this collector loves stamps. Collecting stamps is his passion. When he acquires a new stamp, it's obviously out of love for stamps, but it's also out of interest in them. [...]
[...] It cannot be reduced to a simple object. The other is radically different from me, a part of him will always escape me. At the same time, just like me, he has the right to respect as well as to love in its most disinterested dimension. It is this love that, according to Levinas, allows an opening towards the other, granting him at the same time the recognition of being able to be what he is: unique. In this perspective, love is an act of generosity in which the loving subject effaces himself to let the loved subject exist fully. [...]
[...] Taking care to carefully store it in a folder is also a way to show it a form of respect. Thus, we can see the existence of a dynamic between the two dimensions of love that we have previously evoked. Interested love does not exclude authentic love entirely. As our example of the stamp collector shows, interested love requires the collector to pay attention, a mental availability that allows them to perform the right gestures to store the stamp and not damage it. [...]
[...] Can we conceive an alternative to these two approaches? How can we understand the oscillation between love itself and the pleasure that this love provides? This is what we will try to do by examining each of the paths mentioned. Love as a completely disinterested sentiment True love is generally assimilated to a completely disinterested sentiment. This is all the more true if the love is directed towards someone, that is to say a person. This is based on the idea that the love directed towards the other should not be motivated by the search for personal benefit. [...]
