What is love? That question instantly brings to mind several different songs and books. We live in a culture where love and inadvertently sex is in almost everything. The entertainment culture portrays love as being all about sex and infatuation. They also make love look like it is about what another person can give you, and not what you can mutually give to one another. Is that what love is actually about? Webster’s Dictionary describes love as being a strong affection (“Love”). A strong affection is still a vague description. In the ancient Greek culture they used three main words for love. The three words are Agape, Eros, and Philos. Each word was used to describe a different type of love. Living in a culture where love is almost everywhere we should consider what love really means.
The most common love that is portrayed in entertainment is Eros love. Anne Wilson, in her article “Love Changes All”, described Eros as being the type of love that is felt. She also said it is the overwhelming attraction felt at the beginning of a romantic relationship. I would describe Eros as being a type of “because” kind of love. It is the type that makes people say, “I love you because you are attractive right now, because I want you, because you currently don’t have any problems, and because it feels good to be with you”. It is similar to when you first start getting to know that somebody that you have liked for awhile. Normally, you were first drawn to them because they looked appealing. Then you started to talk to them and your realized how funny they were or how much you had in common with each other. It is the type of feeling that you get when you spend time alone together, and you wish that time could just freeze. You want to spend eve...
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... a friend. Many people also know how it feels to love somebody in spite of their imperfections. It is probably safe to say that almost everybody is in love with something or is looking for love. After all, isn’t that how we are designed?
Works Cited
The Holy Bible. Nashville: Nelson Bibles, 1982. Print. New King James Vers.
“Sunday Observance.” Catholic Insight. 7.1 (1999): 22. General OneFile. Web. 21 Mar. 2014.
General Conference of Seventh-day Adventist. “Baptism.” Seventh-day Adventist Believe…A Biblical Exposition of 27 Fundamental Doctrines. Hagerstown[MD]: Review and Herald, 1988. 189. Print.
Perrine, Stephen. "Your Get-Out-of-Hell-Free Cards." Best Life 5.2 (2008): 20. General OneFile. Web. 21 Mar. 2014.
McClory, Robert. "Baptism Creates Wet, Oily, Dazzling Christians." National Catholic Reporter 31.42 (1995): 10 General OneFile. Web. 21 Mar. 2014.
When Eros comes to mind, one imagines a couple falling in love and growing old together; one could even imagine a man looking at a woman with lust. While Eros is a love between a man and a woman, it involves much more than lust and the event of falling "in love". Gatsby, a character in "The Great Gatsby", forms a love that is equal to Eros. He does this through desiring only one woman and by unfortunately making Eros a god in his life.
Eros, defined as an intimate, romantic love, is often what comes to mind when one speaks of
What exactly is love ? For centuries, love has been one of the most talked about topics. It has always been described as being one of the best feelings on earth, and one that many cannot live without. Love is a strong emotion that everyone faces through out their lives. Love can be amazing yet cruel. It can lead to devastation or happiness. Love tends to have many turns.Wars have been waged and fought over love. Love is a strong word often used but never meant. Love affects people emotionally, physically and mentally.
Love by definition is an emotion explored in philosophy, religion, and literature, often as either romantic love, the fraternal love of others, or the love of God based on the definition found in The Encarta Encyclopedia. As I explored the definition by means of the Internet, books, and articles I noticed the definitions changed quite a bit, but yet had the same basic understanding. The definition I found in The Encarta Encyclopedia was probably the most simple and most basic. It refers to love in the whole aspect, which is Godly, fraternal, and romantic. All in which can only be defined by one word and that it love.
Why does one love? One loves for the sake of happiness. This was the common mindset in the pre-modern worldview from the time of ancient Greece. The ideas present in Plato’s The Symposium have however been replaced with a more contemporary view, particularly in Western societies. Allan Bloom details this transition in his work Love and Friendship. Bloom argues that the idea of “eros” has lost its true meaning; it has been morphed into a selfish and self-less act of mere sex: “Eros, in its Freudian version, is really all just selfishness and provides no basis for intimate human connection” (Bloom 24). Sex is no longer a form of a strong, intimate connection, but rather our contemporaries have allowed sex to become “no different from a description of eating habits” (Bloom 20). Society today sees sex everywhere, it is forced upon us by the media, but there’s no beauty in it. Love relationships once were for the purpose of exchanging knowledge, today it is a label frequently and erroneously used.
What is love? The age-old question arises once more. In truth, a universal definition has not been agreed upon, but generally one can define love as “an indication of adoration” or an “an ineffable feeling of intense attraction shared in interpersonal and sexual relationships.” Love can be directed towards kin, a lover, oneself, nature, or humanity- but regardless that love in an emotional sense is eternal. Some fall into love, and some claim they fall out. Love should be endless, lasting, and pure, but half of the time that love ends up being a sham. There is solid record of this false love- love that is meant to look pure- in the famous writings The Lottery and To His Coy Mistress.
Nowadays there are many meanings to the word ‘love’, and people use the word ‘love’ to express emotions. Love is different for each individual because it can be felt for a person, an object, or a way of life, which makes it difficult to encompass a true interpretation of it. In English there is only one word for love and that is the word love. The more frequently the word love is used then it is more likely for the true meaning of the word to become dim. In the Greek language, different words are used to describe different types of love such as Eros, Phileo, Storge, Agape, and Philautia. Eros describes sexual and passionate love. Phileo is used to talk about friendship. Storge is a family
Eros as described above is a love that is seen not only as sexual desire, but a “general, unspecified pre-occupation with her (the beloved) totality (Lewis, 133)”. Although the positive side of Eros is experiencing passionate love, individuals are indulging in their own desires, the end goal to please themselves. This mindset is selfish therefore Eros is no longer able to be morally correct. Eros requires is that the lover has some initial interest in the beloved that gave them some sort of self-gratification or pleasure. This does not make Eros any less of a form of love, but this does inhibit Eros from being considered honest in the lover’s true intentions for loving the beloved. This dishonestly goes against my definition of
First, to get back on track, it is important to look at the three separate levels of love, and it would make sense to first look at eros. Eros is a romantic love, the kind of love one would have towards a beautiful object, or person. It is that sexual drive that is most apparent at the early stages of a relationship. This could be considered to be the first definition people would think of when questioned about the meaning of love. In fact in a more layman attempt at understanding eros one can think of the feeling one has during a crush, where a person’s affections are aimed at a single individual.
What exactly is love? Is there an absolute meaning to the word - love? Or is it purely subjective? The concept of true love is what we search for all our lives. Yet love is one of the most misunderstood concepts of all. What people really want more than anything else is to be loved unconditionally; to be accepted for who we are, and still be loved. Sometimes we will do some crazy things, "in the name of love."
Love is not usually well defined. People often think that they are in love, but they can�t explain it. There is a great dealing of confusion of the words love, and infatuation. Love may include romance, infatuation, affection and tenderness. But it could be love if one or more of the elements are not present. The definition of love varies from person to person. Love is essential element for all relationships. Much of what is written about love is either brief or mocking. Society in general is very cruel and heartless toward real love of any kind. Modern writing mocks marriages, husbands and wives, but condones adultery, and other obscene values. Real love is a mystery to most people. Most people never realize the true potential or value of love, nor do they learn to practice the art of love.
Love is one of those things that means different things to different people. If you would look the word love up in the dictionary, you would find this: “an intense feeling of deep affection.” For some people, love can be purely romantic or even just purely sexual. For others, real love can only exist between family members or between people and a god. For some people, it is felt for your partners, family, pets, or even inanimate objects. None of the people are right or wrong, but I do know one thing, love is very powerful. Love is overused in today's world, people say they love someone because of the way they look or their body. That isn't love. To me, love is the most spectacular, indescribable, deep euphoric
Love is an interpersonal relationship developed, maintained, and possibly destroyed through communication, but also can be enhanced by communication. Love is often described as a feeling of closeness, caring, intimacy and commitment between two people. There are six different types of love: eros, ludus, storge, pragma, mania, and
Poets and philosophers for centuries have been trying to answer the question, what is love? Love has an infinite number of definitions, which vary from one person to another. Love cannot be measured by any physical means. One may never know what true love is until love it- self has been experienced. What is love? A four letter word that causes a person to behave in a way that is out of character. What is love? A first kiss, childhood crushes on a teacher or friend’s mom. What is love? A choice that people make by putting their partner’s wishes, desires and needs above everything else. What is love? The act of forgiveness, the infatuation with someone, the communication between two people. What is love? A friendship that turned into a lifelong commitment, that special someone who has vowed to spend the rest of their lives to honor and protect, to love each other “till death do you part.” When in love nothing else in the world matters. According to the online Encarta Dictionary love is the passionate feeling of romantic and sexual desire and longing for somebody. Poets and philosophers may never know what love really is, and we may never truly understand the question what is love.
What is love? Love is a very special and meaningful word to each human being. Each human being has his/her own thoughts about love to guide himself/herself to land safely and smoothly into the kingdom of Love. Without this preconceived idea of love, people would be acting like a blind person searching for the light with thousand of obstacles in front of him.