Introduction to the fundamental meaning of love

INTRODUCTION TO LOVE: A philosophical and biblical approach to the fundamental meaning of love.

Take a look at the love lives of a great number of celebrities in our music and movie industries worldwide. You would notice that most of them have struggled to maintain a lasting relationship. They have not been able to replicate in their lives those sensational love songs and movies they sing and act about. Some of them keep hopping from one relationship or marriage to another, creating scandals and bad news when it comes to their love lives. Is it the case, then, that in reality, most of these celebrities or artists do not know what love is, but it only appears they do?

As this is an introduction to the topic of love, I would like to emphasize that love is one of the most discussed and written-about subjects in both print and electronic media. Many of the books we write revolve around love or include themes related to it. But whether these views on love are the ultimate reality or the fundamental basis of all that there is to love is the major question. This pulls me to my subject, “What is love?”

When it comes to love, everyone has their own ideas or philosophies about it. Because one way or the other, all of us have experienced love at various degrees and stages in our lives. But the question is, are these ideas true knowledge or opinions? If these ideas of ours about love are true knowledge, will they not be common to all since knowledge is one? (Something that I believe Plato would have considered the universal Form of love.). But as it stands now, one can say that most of our ideas about love are merely opinions, since they are not one but many. These are evident in the many divorce cases and relationship breakups we see around us. These are usually caused by conflicts of ideas on what each party believes love is supposed to be. The meaning of love seems to change for everyone, and this changing nature of things reminds me of Parmenides’ theory on change. According to him, everything in the world is becoming, so by extension, love is also a changing phenomenon, and it keeps changing like opinions. 

This is an introduction to love. In the subsequent edition, I deal with some attempted solutions to the problem of love.