• We’re currently investigating an issue related to the forum theme and styling that is impacting page layout and visual formatting. The problem has been identified, and we are actively working on a resolution. There is no impact to user data or functionality, this is strictly a front-end display issue. We’ll post an update once the fix has been deployed. Thanks for your patience while we get this sorted.

What is love?

Page 2 - Seeking answers? Join the AnandTech community: where nearly half-a-million members share solutions and discuss the latest tech.
You know love is a happy time. All throughout the universe.
It's when the male part of the species goes to the female part of the species and says:
"Hey, do you want to go on a date?"
And then she would say: "Why yes, I'd like to go on a date."
If you're LUCKY!-
And then you go to a restaurant, and she gets something called
A salad.
And then he gets a big piece of meat, that he eats.
And that to me ladies and gentlemen, is LOVE.
Kinda makes you cry, doesn't it?
 
Originally posted by: Chryso
You know love is a happy time. All throughout the universe.
It's when the male part of the species goes to the female part of the species and says:
"Hey, do you want to go on a date?"
And then she would say: "Why yes, I'd like to go on a date."
If you're LUCKY!-
And then you go to a restaurant, and she gets something called
A salad.
And then he gets a big piece of meat, that he eats.
And that to me ladies and gentlemen, is LOVE.
Kinda makes you cry, doesn't it?
Click to expand...

I'm all misty eyed after reading this...
 
In my spiritually curious youth, I investigated Zen philosophy and koans, which really captured me.
The idea of a statement being a meditative focus.

As a lover of literature, Shakespeare is close to my heart, and I find sonnet 116 to be apropos as a meditative focus on considering the nature of love:

Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O no! it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come:
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.


Consider it in part and in whole, it is full of meanings, IMO.

I would say, based on my experience, love takes work only when our ego stands in the way. Remove self, at least as much as possible, and love becomes easier.
 
Originally posted by: ThePresence
Damn you. Now I won't be able to get that sh*tty tune out my head.
Click to expand...

Nope, I damn you first :Q. That's the first thing I thought of when I read your thread title 😛.

Also, it seems your entire post is about causal (cause->effect) relationships... definitely not a new concept 😛. Of course nothing just exists, there are stimuli that affect us in many ways where one stimuli can cause one or more emotions to flare up. I think one of the more important parts of your post was the distinction between "love" and "true love" as in society today, love is such a fleeting thing that you see little junior high kids using it with each other.

Now, trying to define what you call true love through actions... it's not possible. Emotions are relational to the person in which you're basing it from. For example, I may come to the conclusion of love much different than you or anyone else on these forums, or it's quite possible that we both do it in the same manner. That's the reason we define love as an emotion and not stimuli or the direct result there of. Because an emotion is still the same... same brain function in the same area.

Now, you'll notice that I also mentioned "direct result there of" in that past paragraph. That's because love (or any emotion) has a stimuli and a direct action following it. You could also take your argument and define it from a result as there's actually a cause -> effect -> result when it comes to that. For example, girlfriend hugs you after she's been gone for awhile, you start to feel happy inside that you've seen her because you've missed her, you hug her back. Her initial cause made your sense of love rise and made you hug back.

I hope that spiel made sense 😱.
 
Originally posted by: Aikouka
Now, trying to define what you call true love through actions... it's not possible. Emotions are relational to the person in which you're basing it from. For example, I may come to the conclusion of love much different than you or anyone else on these forums, or it's quite possible that we both do it in the same manner. That's the reason we define love as an emotion and not stimuli or the direct result there of. Because an emotion is still the same... same brain function in the same area.
Click to expand...
I think there are several actions that most people will do as a result of the emotion of love. Like I said, overlooking faults, loyalty and commitment. I think that's pretty universal.
Now, you'll notice that I also mentioned "direct result there of" in that past paragraph. That's because love (or any emotion) has a stimuli and a direct action following it. You could also take your argument and define it from a result as there's actually a cause -> effect -> result when it comes to that. For example, girlfriend hugs you after she's been gone for awhile, you start to feel happy inside that you've seen her because you've missed her, you hug her back. Her initial cause made your sense of love rise and made you hug back.

I hope that spiel made sense 😱.
Click to expand...
Yes, but in my definition, her hugging is not really love. It's just an emotional response, which is the emotion of love. I don't consider that an action caused by love. To me that's all part of the emotion.

 
So, I was going to make a thread with this very same title but decided to be a good lil' ATer and search first. Seeing as this was the best I could come up with, I'll just post again here.

The question is: What is love?

Here are some possibilities.

1. Love is an emotion felt by one person about another, preferably mutually.
2. Love is a commitment by one person to another, again, preferably mutually.
3. Love is when one's life is better simply because another person exists.

Other possibilities? I don't like the emotion thing because emotions come and go like the wind. Love seems like it has to be more permanent than that. Commitment is good, but one can be committed to lots of things without loving them; it is insufficient. The third choice is more of an observation rather than a definition.

So... any thoughts? Any other options? Per the dictionary:
A deep, tender, ineffable feeling of affection and solicitude toward a person, such as that arising from kinship, recognition of attractive qualities, or a sense of underlying oneness.
Click to expand...

That would appear to be much like #1.
 
Albatross got it right. Though there is much more about love in that book.

Aimster, if something ****** up your life, then it wasn't love. Love does no harm to a neighbor (Romans 13:10).
 
>1. Love is an emotion felt by one person about another, preferably mutually.

>preferably mutually.

Personally, I prefer one sided love. It is easier to take advantage of. Not that opinions belong in a definition anyway. If everyone has their own meaning for a word it becomes useless for communication.
 
Originally posted by: ThePresence
A 90-year old man needed to take a blood test. He had an appointment at 8:30 am at the doctor's office.

The office is running a little late, and the old man is getting antsy, constantly glancing at his watch. The nurse notices this and can't help wondering to herself what kind of a rush a 90-year old man can be in. At 8:50 he finally stands up and tells the nurse that he had an 8:30 appointment. The nurse sees how riled up he is and calls him in for his test.

When he gets in there she asks his "What's the big rush"?

He answers "every day at 9:30 I have breakfast with my wife".

"I didn't know you had a wife. Why is she not here with you?"

"She's in a nursing home. Everyday I take the bus there and have breakfast with her."

"Wow, she must really love you".

"Actually, she has no idea who I am. She not really aware of anything anymore."

"So why the big rush? She doesn't remember you anyway."

The old man shook his head slowly.

"No, she doesn't. But I remember her."
Click to expand...

That my firend hit me in that nice bittersweet spot. Someday. . . . .

 
Originally posted by: bobsmith1492
Hm, I was thinking about writing a paper for philosophy class about that very question; seems I'm not that original...
Click to expand...

Well but of course. 😀 There are some questions that everybody asks. . .
 
I think the wife does remember him.....a lot of times patients will have lucid moments where they regain lucidity for a brief moment and they've said that they can still hear those that love them, and see them, they just can't respond
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Back
Top