... just to be clear, that anon wasn't me. I just wanted to know your opinion on the matter. U_U (love)
np, dawg, I didn't think it was you.
Anyway, I don't really see the sense in trying to say that all uses of the word "love" have something in common that a proper answer to the question "what is love" would capture. I think trying to take what the teenage garage rock band sings about, stuffy poet writes about , and what the biologist studies and tie them together in a single vision is just a mistake. There is no pre-linguistic naturally individuated phenomenon called "love" that is floating out there that each party dimly perceives from a different angle. They are all talking about different things.
I think the most useful thing in that grab-bag, for me, on most days, is what the biologist is talking about: the mating/nest-making/pair-bonding instinct. If you understand that we're all animals and that there are real constraints on the possibilities for mating, nest-making, and pair-bonding, then we can learn about these constraints, make better informed decisions, and interact with the world in a more profitable way. That other stuff about flying in the sky, whiskey bottles and pick up trucks, love letters in shoe lockers, or where-art-thou-Romeo or whatever --- well, it's all very pretty, but I have no idea what to do with that.
Anyway, I don't really see the sense in trying to say that all uses of the word "love" have something in common that a proper answer to the question "what is love" would capture. I think trying to take what the teenage garage rock band sings about, stuffy poet writes about , and what the biologist studies and tie them together in a single vision is just a mistake. There is no pre-linguistic naturally individuated phenomenon called "love" that is floating out there that each party dimly perceives from a different angle. They are all talking about different things.
I think the most useful thing in that grab-bag, for me, on most days, is what the biologist is talking about: the mating/nest-making/pair-bonding instinct. If you understand that we're all animals and that there are real constraints on the possibilities for mating, nest-making, and pair-bonding, then we can learn about these constraints, make better informed decisions, and interact with the world in a more profitable way. That other stuff about flying in the sky, whiskey bottles and pick up trucks, love letters in shoe lockers, or where-art-thou-Romeo or whatever --- well, it's all very pretty, but I have no idea what to do with that.