Philosophies of Love

The book Song of Solomon is the Biblical treatment of human sexuality and passion. Unlike Genesis, the attitude towards love and sex is more positive. "My beloved is mine and I am my beloved's," indicates verse 2:16. In this brief book of the Bible, love invokes mutual passion. It is a softer, more feeling section, full of emotion. "Place me like a seal over your heart", a young woman pleads in 8:6, to her lover. Love, in this beautiful text, is seen as good and pure.

Sappho was a woman who lived around 600 BCE. She is known for her passionate love poetry...about her feelings for other women. Lesbianism was banned during that time, and she was banished to the isle of Lesbos (from which we derive Lesbian). She wrote lyric poetry (as opposed to things like epic poetry eg. the Iliad and the Odyssey) and gave praise to Eros, the Greek god of love and passion. Her poetry was often about the feelings of unrequited love. The younger women in her care had men whom they went to, and the angst felt in Sappho's works would put a modern day poet to shame. Memory, Sappho seemed to believe, kept the value of love alive, and so she wrote delicate details about each of the women she fell in love with. In that way, love for Sappho was a form of freedom.

Nozick wrote about love's bond - the formation of a "we" in love, a collective identity. Love, Nozick indicates, changes you. He distinguishes love from infatuation, and talks about the elements of love. Your well-being (or ill-being, as Nozick puts it), is tied up with that of the one you love - what happens to them, happens to you (eg. if you are hurt, they are hurt). This creates an extension of yourself to include the other person.
People tend to pool their well-being and autonomy in love, and this means risk. It also, Novick argues, gives insurance against life's blows - you have someone to go through hard times with. Love changes our status, we want to be considered a pair, a "we". It changes our awareness - we think about the other person all the time. It also changes tasks - in a couple, there is often a division of labour.