Abstract
What is the nature of love? Why is love so precious? Why would happy women and men wish to spend their lives without partners or close friends? One popular answer to these questions is that loving somebody means rejoicing in their joy, suffering on account of their suffering, and doing whatever you can to promote their good life. In loving somebody you reach out to the world. Valuing the flourishing of beings, or even things and ideas, other than yourself gives meaning to your life. The purest form of love is selfless maternal love. Call this the curative model of love. According to this model, love is opposed to egoism. The curative model constitutes the major paradigm in the philosophy of love. It can be traced back to Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics. Some contemporary proponents are Lawrence Blum, Harry Frankfurt, and Hugh LaFollette.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Similar content being viewed by others
Bibliography
Ben-Ze’ev, A. (2000) The Subtlety of Emotions (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).
Buber, M. (1958) I and Thou, trans. R. G. Smith (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons).
Gilbert, M. (2002) ‘Collective Guilt and Collective Guilt Feeling’, The Journal of Ethics 2, 115–43.
Helm, B. (2010) Love, Friendship, and the Self. Intimacy, Identification, and the Social Nature of the Person (Oxford: Oxford University Press).
James, H. (1970) The Portrait of a Lady. Volumes III and IV of the New York Edition (New York: The Library of America).
James, H. (1971) The Golden Bowl. Volumes XXIII and XXIV of the New York Edition (New York: The Library of America).
Krebs, A. (2011) ‘The Phenomenology of Shared Feeling’, Appraisal 8(3), 35–50.
Krebs, A. (2015) Zwischen Ich und Du. Eine dialogische Philosophie der Liebe (Frankfurt: Suhrkamp).
Nussbaum, M. (1990) Love’s Knowledge (Oxford: Oxford University Press).
Nussbaum, M. (2001) Upheavals of Thought. The Intelligence of Emotions (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).
Scheler, M. (1954) The Nature of Sympathy, trans. P. Heath (London: Routledge).
Von Wright, G. H. (1963) Varieties of Goodness (Bristol: Thoemmes).
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 2014 Angelika Krebs
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Krebs, A. (2014). Between I and Thou — On the Dialogical Nature of Love. In: Maurer, C., Milligan, T., Pacovská, K. (eds) Love and Its Objects. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137383310_2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137383310_2
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-48048-7
Online ISBN: 978-1-137-38331-0
eBook Packages: Palgrave Religion & Philosophy CollectionPhilosophy and Religion (R0)