Love

Love is a feeling of strong attraction and emotional attachment to a person, animal, or thing.[1] It is expressed in many forms, encompassing a range of strong and positive emotional and mental states, from the most sublime virtue or good habit, or the deepest interpersonal affection, to the simplest pleasure.[2] An example of this range of meanings is that the love of a mother differs from the love of a spouse, which differs from the love of food.

Love is considered to be both positive and negative, with its virtue representing kindness, compassion, and affection—"the unselfish, loyal, and benevolent concern for the good of another"—and its vice representing a moral flaw akin to vanity, selfishness, amour-propre, and egotism. It may also describe compassionate and affectionate actions towards other humans, oneself, or animals.[3] In its various forms, love 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.[4][5] Love has been postulated to be a function that keeps human beings together against menaces and to facilitate the continuation of the species.[6]

Ancient Greek philosophers identified six forms of love: familial love (storge), friendly love or platonic love (philia), romantic love (eros), self-love (philautia), guest love (xenia), and divine or unconditional love (agape). Modern authors have distinguished further varieties of love: fatuous love, unrequited love, empty love, companionate love, consummate love, infatuated love (limerence), amour de soi, and courtly love. Numerous cultures have also distinguished Ren, Yuanfen, Mamihlapinatapai, Cafuné, Kama, Bhakti, Mettā, Ishq, Chesed, Amore, charity, Saudade (and other variants or symbioses of these states), as culturally unique words, definitions, or expressions of love in regard to specified "moments" currently lacking in the English language.[7]

The colour wheel theory of love defines three primary[i], three secondary[ii], and nine tertiary[iii] love styles, describing them in terms of the traditional color wheel.[8][9] The triangular theory of love suggests intimacy[iv], passion[v], and commitment[vi] are core components of love.[10] Love has additional religious or spiritual meaning. 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.

Definitions

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 concepts for "love" (agape, eros, philia, storge).[11] Cultural differences in conceptualizing love makes it difficult to establish a universal definition.[12]

Although the nature or essence of love is a subject of frequent debate, different aspects of the word can be clarified by determining what is not 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. As an interpersonal relationship with romantic overtones, love is sometimes contrasted with friendship, although the word love is often applied to close friendships or platonic love. Further possible ambiguities come with usages like "girlfriend", "boyfriend", and "just good friends". Abstractly discussed, love usually refers to a feeling one person experiences for another person. 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.[13]

The complex nature of love often reduces its discourse 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."[14][15] Bertrand Russell describes love as a condition of[clarification needed] "absolute value," as opposed to relative value.[16] Philosopher Gottfried Leibniz said that love is "to be delighted by the happiness of another."[17] Meher Baba stated that in love there is a "feeling of unity" and an "active appreciation of the intrinsic worth of the object of love."[18] Biologist Jeremy Griffith defines love as "unconditional selflessness".[19] According to Ambrose Bierce, love is a temporary insanity curable by marriage.[20]

Impersonal

People can express love towards things other than humans; this can range from expressing a strong liking of something, such as "I love popcorn" or that something is essential to one's identity, such as "I love being an actor".[21]

People can have a profound dedication and immense appreciation for an object, principle, or objective, thereby experiencing a sense of love towards it. For example, compassionate outreach and volunteer workers' "love" of their cause may sometimes be born not of interpersonal love but impersonal love, altruism, and strong spiritual or political convictions.[3]

People can also "love" material objects, animals, or activities if they invest themselves in bonding or otherwise identifying with those things. If sexual passion is also involved, then this feeling is called paraphilia.[22]

Interpersonal