
Love is a variety of different feelings, states, and attitudes that
ranges from interpersonal affection ("I love my mother") to pleasure
("I loved that meal"). It can refer to an emotion of a strong
attraction and personal attachment. It can also be a virtuere presenting 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 in English are denoted as "love"; 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 (antonyms of "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. (Further possible ambiguities come with usages
"girlfriend", "boyfriend", "just good friends").
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 cliché. 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 torelative value. 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.
By Irfan