Love: the definition of love, a scientific explanation, the views of philosophers and quotes about love. What is love?

Everyone knows what love is . However, if you ask this question to different people, the answers will be completely different. Why is that? And whether there is the only true and correct definition of love - this is what I want to talk about.

The science

So, what is love? The definition of love was tried to give many minds of mankind throughout the history of earthly civilization. That is why it is worth considering this concept from different points of view. And I want to start my analysis from the scientific sphere. Interesting for many will be the fact that there is a special chemistry of love. Scientists have proved: when a person falls in love, his body produces such a quantity of hormones, which is akin to drug or alcohol intoxication. In this case, the brain receives signals that indicate that the person is in a state of love. However, this is only one side of such a state, and treating love only as chemistry is just a crime.

Interesting Facts

We are going to understand what love is. The definition of love was tried to give many scientific figures, all their conclusions can be formalized in several rather entertaining scientific facts about love:

1. Love is a drug. The proof of this is the tomography of the head of a man in love. It activates the same areas of the brain as the person who used cocaine and is in a state of euphoria.
2. Love is a way of survival. Scientists have proved that human love is a somewhat modified form of entrainment in animals. That is, it is easier for a person to find one partner for life, and not constantly seek new ones to meet their own sexual needs.
3. Love is blind. This statement also has scientific proof. The German researcher found out that the brain zones responsible for rational decisions and negative emotions in a person in love are simply turned off.
4. Love is dependence. Scientists say that it is necessary to treat love as well as from drug addiction: to remove from the sight of the "patient" all the irritating factors: photographs, gifts, any reminders of the object of lust.
5. Cure of love. Since during a person's love, the level of a hormone such as serotonin falls quite seriously, physicians suggest that they compensate for it medically, in order to be able to avoid crimes motivated by this feeling (statistics show that their amount has increased significantly over the last time). However, if you "go too far" with this hormone, a person will not fall in love, and the attraction will remain, which is fraught with promiscuous sexual intercourse.
6. Men love eyes. This statement is known to many people, but far from everyone knows that it also has scientific evidence. During falling in love, the cortex of the cerebral hemispheres is activated in the boys , which is responsible for the visual factor. It will be interesting that women actively become the zone responsible for memory: the lady remembers the behavior of the partner, then to analyze it and draw conclusions: is it worth to be with such a person further.

Dictionaries

So, as a small conclusion, I want to give a few explanations of what love is. Scientific explanation, formulations:

1. This is a strong heart feeling, an emotional attraction.
2. Sexual attraction, attraction.
3. Strong positive emotions.
4. Soulful intimacy, affectionate attitude.

In general, it can be said that love from a scientific point of view is pure chemistry.

Art

It will be interesting and the fact that you can see love. Photos, pictures - they perfectly illustrate this feeling. However, for art this is not enough. Many writers also pondered what love is. She is sung in poems, songs, necessarily appears on the pages of prose stories and novels. Various quotes about love have become so well known that people sometimes do not even know who said it and from what work they are taken.

1. Boris Pasternak: "Love is a high disease."
2. Stendhal, "About Love": "Love is like a fever, it can appear and fade away without the slightest feeling of a person's will."
3. Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the beach: "Everyone who falls in love is in search of something that he lacks."
4. "The physiology of marriage" Honore de Balzac: "Real attachment is blind. Do not judge those people whom you love."
5. Shakespeare, "A Midsummer Night's Dream": "Cupids are therefore portrayed as blind, because the lover does not look with his eyes, but with his heart."
6. Fyodor Dostoevsky, "The Brothers Karamazov": "What is hell? Regret that it is impossible to love more".

And there are a lot of such statements. As for the nuances, they will all be different, but they will still have a single line.

Philosophers: Erich Fromm

Their works on this subject also have philosophers. About love they talked a lot, giving information from a wide variety of points of view. Now I want to pay attention to Erich Fromm and his work "The Art of Love." What are the interesting conclusions this philosopher made in his work. So, in his opinion, love is not just a sentimental feeling that can arise in a person. This is not enough, not enough. In order for love to develop, develop and grow morally, the person himself. The first step that everyone must do is to realize that love is an art, akin to the art of living. And in order to understand love in its entirety, every person should perceive it as something greater than the given. Also the philosopher says that besides love there is also some other form of relations, a symbiotic unity. There are two types:

1. Passive is to some extent masochism, when a person subordinates himself to the will of another, becomes an integral part of it. In this case, he loses his individuality.
2. Active is sadism, when one person subordinates the will of another person, making it an integral part of it.

However, mature love is the opposite of these forms of relationships. It is the union of two people while preserving their personality, individuality, integrity. According to Erich Fromm, love is a kind of force that breaks down walls, helping a person to reunite with another person. Real mature love is a paradox: two people become one, while remaining two personalities. Important nuances of love, in the author's opinion:

1. If a person loves, he will give (himself, his life).
2. A person is completely interested in the life of his partner.
3. Partners must respect each other.

Fromm about the objects of love

We study further love. The definition of love, namely its different kinds, is also given by this philosopher in his work "The Art of Love."

1. Brotherly love is fundamental, the basis of other types. This is respect, care, responsibility.
2. Maternal love is the first love in the life of every person. The essence of it, in the author's opinion, should assume the woman's desire that the child later separate from it.
3. Erotic love is a complete fleshly unity with one person.
4. Love for yourself. The author writes that one should not confuse this with selfishness, these are different concepts. Only loving himself, a person can become a loved one and someone else.
5. Love of God, a religious form of love.

Philosopher Carl Jung

What other philosophers of love said? So, why not turn to the works of Carl Gustave Jung, who at the same time was a great psychiatrist and also a disciple of Sigmund Freud? Home and his favorite phrase: "Nothing is possible without love," from which it is already possible to draw many conclusions. According to the author's opinion, love is the most powerful all-conquering factor in a person's life. So, consider this topic is impossible without the two archetypes that are inherent in every person: Anima and Animus. This is the so-called personification of the unconscious beginning of the representative of the opposite sex in the psyche of every single person. These halves are attracted to people. What is Jung's love? The definition of love, which the author gives: hidden in a person's features are in another person and they also attract him, stirring up a feeling of love.

Anthropology about love

The definition of the word "love" also tried to give such a science as anthropology. Special attention should be paid to the work of the American scientist Helen Fisher "Why we love: the nature and chemistry of romantic love." Here she singled out three basic whales of this feeling: affection (sense of security and tranquility), romance (the most powerful stimulator of the emergence of love) and lust (satisfying natural needs).

Religion

It is also worth mentioning that there is also a religious definition of love. In the Bible, a lot is said about this feeling.

1. Prit. 10:12: "... man's love covers all his sins ..."
2. Song of Songs 8: 6-7: "... is as strong as death is love; She is as cruel as hell; Her arrows are fiery; Its flame is very strong. The rivers and the great waters will not fill it. "
3. 1 Pet., 4: 8 "... Have love for one another, because it is she who covers all the sins."
4. 1 John. 4: 7-8,18: "... love from God, everyone who loves, is born of God and knows God."
5. 2 John. 6 "... love is that everyone should act according to the commandments of God."

This is not all the quotes about love that can be found in the main book of mankind, but they fully reflect the mood and definition of this feeling according to religious canons.

Psychology

We study further the notion of love. The definition of love can also be found in psychology. Thus, scientists in this field of science distinguish three main factors on which this feeling is based:

1. Passion. Attraction, excitement. This is the physical side of love.
2. Proximity. Friendship, unity. Emotional side.
3. Commitments. Willingness to solve the problems of a couple, caring. This is the moral aspect of this feeling.

Love in Greek

The theme of love was touched upon by all peoples and cultures. At this stage, I want to talk about what kind of love distinguished the ancient Greeks.

1. Agape. It's not just love, but more compassion. The highest type, when a person can give all himself, without expecting anything in return.
2. Eros is a passion. However, this is not always a bodily passion, it can also be spiritual. Eros by its nature - enthusiasm, love.
3. Filia, or sons, is brotherly love. A more calm feeling, the main thing here is spirituality.
4. Storge is more like affection. Most often it is conjugal love.

These four types of love are still basic today, but in the modern world there are other subtypes of them. Interesting may be a type like mania - it's insanity, love-obsession.

Household level

As it was said above, for each person, love is something special, special. Everyone understands it in their own way, there is nothing wrong with that. How can you characterize love in a simple way, without addressing the opinions of scientists, writers or philosophers?

1. Love is a desire to do something good for a loved one, constantly to please him.
2. "What kind of love, if I can not breathe without him" (x / f "Love and Doves"). Love is a desire to always be with your loved one, if not physically, then at least mentally.
3. Love is constantly thinking about whether a loved one is well: whether it is warm to him, whether he ate, whether he is all right.
4. Love is more to give than to receive, completely without thinking about it.

To love is to forgive, try to be better, do not pay attention to shortcomings. Love is a constant work not only on relationships, but also on oneself. This is work that can be rewarded only after a year.