In texts and pictures we explore the mysteries of love and life.
Love refers to a variety of different feelings, states, and
attitudes that ranges from interpersonal affection to pleasure. It
can refer to an emotion of a strong attraction and personal
attachment. It can also be a virtue representing human kindness,
compassion, and affection -"the unselfish loyal and benevolent
concern for the good of another." It may also describe
compassionate and affectionate actions towards other humans, one's
self or animals. Ancient Greeks identified four forms of love:
kinship or familiarity (in Greek, storge), friendship (philia),
sexual and/or romantic desire (eros), and self-emptying or divine
love (agape). Modern authors have distinguished further varieties
of romantic love. Non-Western traditions have also distinguished
variants or symbioses of these states. This diversity of uses and
meanings combined with the complexity of the feelings involved
makes love unusually difficult to consistently define, compared to
other emotional states. Love in its various forms acts as a major
facilitator of interpersonal relationships and, owing to its
central psychological importance, is one of the most common themes
in the creative arts. Love may be understood as a function to keep
human beings together against menaces and to facilitate the
continuation of the species. The word "love" can have a variety of
related but distinct meanings in different contexts. Many other
languages use multiple words to express some of the different
concepts that English relies mainly on "love" to encapsulate; one
example is the plurality of Greek words for "love." Cultural
differences in conceptualizing love thus doubly impede the
establishment of a universal definition. Although the nature or
essence of love is a subject of frequent debate, different aspects
of the word can be clarified by determining what isn't love. Love
as a general expression of positive sentiment (a stronger form of
like) is commonly contrasted with hate (or neutral apathy); as a
less sexual and more emotionally intimate form of romantic
attachment, love is commonly contrasted with lust; and as an
interpersonal relationship with romantic overtones, love is
sometimes contrasted with friendship, although the word love is
often applied to close friendships. Abstractly discussed love
usually refers to an experience one person feels for another. Love
often involves caring for or identifying with a person or thing
(cf. vulnerability and care theory of love), including oneself (cf.
narcissism). In addition to cross-cultural differences in
understanding love, ideas about love have also changed greatly over
time. Some historians date modern conceptions of romantic love to
courtly Europe during or after the Middle Ages, although the prior
existence of romantic attachments is attested by ancient love
poetry. The complex and abstract nature of love often reduces
discourse of love to a thought-terminating cliche. Several common
proverbs regard love, from Virgil's "Love conquers all" to The
Beatles' "All You Need Is Love." St. Thomas Aquinas, following
Aristotle, defines love as "to will the good of another." Bertrand
Russell describes love as a condition of "absolute value," as
opposed to relative value. citation needed] Philosopher Gottfried
Leibniz said that love is "to be delighted by the happiness of
another." Biologist Jeremy Griffith defines love as "unconditional
selflessness." Love is sometimes referred to as an "international
language" that overrides cultural and linguistic divisions.
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