short essay on value of love

Essay on Love for Students and Children

500+ words essay on love.

Love is the most significant thing in human’s life. Each science and every single literature masterwork will tell you about it. Humans are also social animals. We lived for centuries with this way of life, we were depended on one another to tell us how our clothes fit us, how our body is whether healthy or emaciated. All these we get the honest opinions of those who love us, those who care for us and makes our happiness paramount.

What is Love?

Love is a set of emotions, behaviors, and beliefs with strong feelings of affection. So, for example, a person might say he or she loves his or her dog, loves freedom, or loves God. The concept of love may become an unimaginable thing and also it may happen to each person in a particular way.

Love has a variety of feelings, emotions, and attitude. For someone love is more than just being interested physically in another one, rather it is an emotional attachment. We can say love is more of a feeling that a person feels for another person. Therefore, the basic meaning of love is to feel more than liking towards someone.

Get the huge list of more than 500 Essay Topics and Ideas

Need of Love

We know that the desire to love and care for others is a hard-wired and deep-hearted because the fulfillment of this wish increases the happiness level. Expressing love for others benefits not just the recipient of affection, but also the person who delivers it. The need to be loved can be considered as one of our most basic and fundamental needs.

One of the forms that this need can take is contact comfort. It is the desire to be held and touched. So there are many experiments showing that babies who are not having contact comfort, especially during the first six months, grow up to be psychologically damaged.

Significance of Love

Love is as critical for the mind and body of a human being as oxygen. Therefore, the more connected you are, the healthier you will be physically as well as emotionally. It is also true that the less love you have, the level of depression will be more in your life. So, we can say that love is probably the best antidepressant.

It is also a fact that the most depressed people don’t love themselves and they do not feel loved by others. They also become self-focused and hence making themselves less attractive to others.

Society and Love

It is a scientific fact that society functions better when there is a certain sense of community. Compassion and love are the glue for society. Hence without it, there is no feeling of togetherness for further evolution and progress. Love , compassion, trust and caring we can say that these are the building blocks of relationships and society.

Relationship and Love

A relationship is comprised of many things such as friendship , sexual attraction , intellectual compatibility, and finally love. Love is the binding element that keeps a relationship strong and solid. But how do you know if you are in love in true sense? Here are some symptoms that the emotion you are feeling is healthy, life-enhancing love.

Love is the Greatest Wealth in Life

Love is the greatest wealth in life because we buy things we love for our happiness. For example, we build our dream house and purchase a favorite car to attract love. Being loved in a remote environment is a better experience than been hated even in the most advanced environment.

Love or Money

Love should be given more importance than money as love is always everlasting. Money is important to live, but having a true companion you can always trust should come before that. If you love each other, you will both work hard to help each other live an amazing life together.

Love has been a vital reason we do most things in our life. Before we could know ourselves, we got showered by it from our close relatives like mothers , fathers , siblings, etc. Thus love is a unique gift for shaping us and our life. Therefore, we can say that love is a basic need of life. It plays a vital role in our life, society, and relation. It gives us energy and motivation in a difficult time. Finally, we can say that it is greater than any other thing in life.

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The Concept of True Love Definition Essay

Introduction, understanding the unrealistic notion of true love, the concept of love itself is an illusion, works cited.

The concept of true love is based on the belief that to truly love someone you have to accept them for who they are (including their shortcoming and faults), put their happiness above your own (even if your heart is broken in the process) and that you will always love them even if they are not by your side.

In essence it is a self-sacrificing act wherein a person puts another person’s happiness and well-being above their own. For example in the poem “To my Dear and Loving Husband” by Anne Bradstreet she compares her love for her spouse as “more than whole mines of gold or all the riches that the East doth hold” (Bradstreet, 1). While such an example is archaic it does present itself as an excellent example of the value of true love for other people.

What must be understood though is that in recent years the concept of true has been adopted by popular culture as a needed facet in a person’s life. Various romantic comedies produced by Hollywood all portray characters that at one point or another exhibit tendencies akin to the realization that their life is incomplete without true love and that they should seek it out in the form of female or male character that has been provided as an embodiment of what true love should be.

Due to the influences of popular culture on modern day society this has resulted in more people believing in the concept of true love and actively seeking it out as a result. The inherent problem with this is that true love is an ideal that can be considered the embodiment of every single positive thing that can happen actually happening. In that a person that fits your idea of the perfect partner suddenly appears, that events lead the two of you to be together and that the end result is a classic happily ever after ending.

Unfortunately it must be noted that the concept of the “ideal” is based on the best possible action, event and circumstance actually happening. The fact remains that the real world, unlike in the movies, does not revolve around fortuitous circumstances and the supposed ideal is nothing more than a fanciful notion created by the movie industry.

For example in the story “Rose for Emily” it can be seen that the main character, Emily Grierson, goes to such lengths of retaining love that she murders Homer Barron in order to keep him by her side (Faulkner, 1). The reason behind this action is simple, by the time Homer Barron came into her life she couldn’t experience true love as we know it in the movies due to the effect of reality.

Due to this she creates the illusion of love which she wraps around herself. While most people don’t go to the lengths Emily had done it must be noted that they often follow the same pattern of developing the illusion of true love and retaining its idea. Since the concept of finding true love revolves around finding the ideal partner and that the ideal partner is nothing more than a fanciful creation it can be said that the reality of true love does not exist since it revolves around a fictitious notion and principle.

In the story of Araby readers are introduced to the concept of an unrealistic idea of the embodiment of love wherein the narrator (in the form of a young boy) falls in apparent rapture at the sight of Mangan’s sister. Though she is never mentioned by name the line “I pressed the palms of my hands together until they trembled, murmuring: ‘O love! O love!’ many times”, shows that the boy indeed developed substantial feelings for her (Joyce, 1).

It fact it is suggested numerous times in the story that the boy thinks that what he feels is true love and this is exemplified by his action of offering to buy the girl some souvenir from the Araby fair. Yet once he gets there he encounters a full grown woman at a stand idly chatting with men on various nonsensical topics.

It is then that he comes to the realization that he had crafted for himself a false ideal and that what lay before him was an example of what he could gain in the future. It must be noted that in essence this particular encounter shows what happens when an “ideal” meets reality in that the boy had been so presumptuous in crafting an “ideal” for himself that he neglected to take into account the possibility of better things in the future.

The line “I saw myself as a creature driven and derided by vanity; and my eyes burned with anguish and anger” is an indication of the point in the story when the boy comes to the realization that his ideal was false and that he only though that way because of his isolated world (Joyce, 1).

The story itself could be considered a microcosm of reality with Mangan’s sister acting as the concept of true love. The isolated nature of the idea of love developed by the boy in the story could be compared to the propagated concept of true love in movie industry wherein concepts related to the ideal partner as exemplified by various movies are in effect false when compared to the realities people face.

All too often people think of a person as their true love in an isolated fashion, conceptualizing in them in a world devoid of the interference of reality wherein their every move is considered lovely and perfect.

While such a concept is seen in numerous films it can be seen though that this particular point of view is usually false since when the outside world of reality is introduced people tend to see their “ideals” for what they really are and as a result their behaviors towards such loves usually change.

In essence it can be boiled down to true love being a fantasy created through the isolation of an individual from reality and as such can never be truly attained since once reality is introduced the fantasies diminish resulting in reality taking over banishing the illusion and subjecting people to the harsh truths that they neglected to see.

In the story bitch by Roald Dahl readers are introduced to the notion that passion incited through the creation of a simple chemical compound. This notion is actually symbolic of an ongoing thought that feelings of love are nothing more than illusion created by chemicals and hormones in the body that induce such feelings in order to propagate the species.

In fact various studies have do indeed show that love is a chemical reaction in the brain and as such if properly triggered through an outside source it can be assumed that this can in effect create the same feelings of love.

In fact the poem “Love is not all” by Edna St Vinven Millay says its best when she states that “Love is not all, is not meat or drink nor slumber nor roof against the rain”; from this it can be said that love is immaterial, nothing more than an illusion created by man (Millay, 1). For example in the story it can be seen that once males are affected by the chemical they all of sudden give into to primal urgings for procreation and don’t remember their actions afterwards (Dahl, 1).

Such an effect is suggestive of the fact that in essence people only consider love as love when there is a thought that tries to explain it. The loss of memory of events in the story is symbolic of the loss of thought and as a result the loss of the ability to associate a particular action with love.

In effect the story suggests that love itself is nothing more than a chemical reaction and that as logical individuals we try to justify it through other means that what it actually is. If this is so, the concept of true love itself is again proven to be nothing more than an illusion since it can be considered nothing more than a chemical and hormonal reaction rather than originating from some arbitrary and yet to be defined origin.

Faulkner, William. “Rose for Emily”.

Dahl, Roald. “Bitch”- Switch bitch”.

Joyce, James.”Araby”.

Bradstreet, Anne.“To My Dear and Loving Husband”

Millay, Edna.“Love Is Not All”

Chicago (A-D)
Chicago (N-B)

IvyPanda. (2019, November 2). The Concept of True Love. https://ivypanda.com/essays/true-love/

"The Concept of True Love." IvyPanda , 2 Nov. 2019, ivypanda.com/essays/true-love/.

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IvyPanda . 2019. "The Concept of True Love." November 2, 2019. https://ivypanda.com/essays/true-love/.

1. IvyPanda . "The Concept of True Love." November 2, 2019. https://ivypanda.com/essays/true-love/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "The Concept of True Love." November 2, 2019. https://ivypanda.com/essays/true-love/.

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Before You Write a Love Essay, Read This to Get Examples

The day will come when you can’t escape the fate of all students: You will have to write a what is love essay.

No worries:

Here you’ll find tons of love essay topics and examples. No time to read everything? Scroll down to get a free PDF with original samples.

Definition: Essay on Love

First, let’s define what is love essay?

The most common topics are:

Definition of love
What is love?
Meaning of love

Why limit yourself to these hackneyed, general themes? Below, I’ll show how to make your paper on love original yet relevant to the prompt you get from teachers.

Love Essay Topics: 20 Ideas to Choose for Your Paper

Your essay on love and relationship doesn’t have to be super official and unemotional. It’s ok to share reflections and personal opinions when writing about romance.

Often, students get a general task to write an essay on love. It means they can choose a theme and a title for their paper. If that’s your case, feel free to try any of these love essay topics:

Exploring the impact of love on individuals and relationships.
Love in the digital age: Navigating romance in a tech world.
Is there any essence and significance in unconditional love?
Love as a universal language: Connecting hearts across cultures.
Biochemistry of love: Exploring the process.
Love vs. passion vs. obsession.
How love helps cope with heartbreak and grief.
The art of loving. How we breed intimacy and trust.
The science behind attraction and attachment.
How love and relationships shape our identity and help with self-discovery.
Love and vulnerability: How to embrace emotional openness.
Romance is more complex than most think: Passion, intimacy, and commitment explained.
Love as empathy: Building sympathetic connections in a cruel world.
Evolution of love. How people described it throughout history.
The role of love in mental and emotional well-being.
Love as a tool to look and find purpose in life.
Welcoming diversity in relations through love and acceptance.
Love vs. friendship: The intersection of platonic and romantic bonds.
The choices we make and challenges we overcome for those we love.
Love and forgiveness: How its power heals wounds and strengthens bonds.

Love Essay Examples: Choose Your Sample for Inspiration

Essays about love are usually standard, 5-paragraph papers students write in college:

One paragraph is for an introduction, with a hook and a thesis statement
Three are for a body, with arguments or descriptions
One last passage is for a conclusion, with a thesis restatement and final thoughts

Below are the ready-made samples to consider. They’ll help you see what an essay about love with an introduction, body, and conclusion looks like.

What is love essay: 250 words

Lao Tzu once said, “Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength while loving someone deeply gives you courage.” Indeed, love can transform individuals, relationships, and our world.

A word of immense depth and countless interpretations, love has always fascinated philosophers, poets, and ordinary individuals. This emotion breaks boundaries and has a super power to change lives. But what is love, actually?

It’s a force we feel in countless ways. It is the warm embrace of a parent, filled with care and unwavering support. It is the gentle touch of a lover, sparking a flame that ignites passion and desire. Love is the kind words of a friend, offering solace and understanding in times of need. It is the selfless acts of compassion and empathy that bind humanity together.

Love is not confined to romantic relationships alone. It is found in the family bonds, the connections we forge with friends, and even the compassion we extend to strangers. Love is a thread that weaves through the fabric of our lives, enriching and nourishing our souls.

However, love is not without its complexities. It can be both euphoric and agonizing, uplifting and devastating. Love requires vulnerability, trust, and the willingness to embrace joy and pain. It is a delicate balance between passion and compassion, independence and interdependence.

Finally, the essence of love may be elusive to define with mere words. It is an experience that surpasses language and logic, encompassing a spectrum of emotions and actions. Love is a profound connection that unites us all, reminding us of our shared humanity and the capacity for boundless compassion.

What is love essay: 500 words

A 500-word essay on why I love you

Trying to encapsulate why I love you in a mere 500 words is impossible. My love for you goes beyond the confines of language, transcending words and dwelling in the realm of emotions, connections, and shared experiences. Nevertheless, I shall endeavor to express the depth and breadth of my affection for you.

First and foremost, I love you for who you are. You possess a unique blend of qualities and characteristics that captivate my heart and mind. Your kindness and compassion touch the lives of those around you, and I am grateful to be the recipient of your unwavering care and understanding. Your intelligence and wit constantly challenge me to grow and learn, stimulating my mind and enriching our conversations. You have a beautiful spirit that radiates warmth and joy, and I am drawn to your vibrant energy.

I love the way you make me feel. When I am with you, I feel a sense of comfort and security that allows me to be my true self. Your presence envelops me in a cocoon of love and acceptance, where I can express my thoughts, fears, and dreams without fear of judgment. Your support and encouragement inspire me to pursue my passions and overcome obstacles. With you by my side, I feel empowered to face the world, knowing I have a partner who believes in me.

I love the memories we have created together. From the laughter-filled moments of shared adventures to the quiet and intimate conversations, every memory is etched in my heart. Whether exploring new places, indulging in our favorite activities, or simply enjoying each other’s company in comfortable silence, each experience reinforces our bond. Our shared memories serve as a foundation for our relationship, a testament to the depth of our connection and the love that binds us.

I love your quirks and imperfections. Your true essence shines through these unique aspects! Your little traits make me smile and remind me of the beautiful individual you are. I love how you wrinkle your nose when you laugh, become lost in thought when reading a book, and even sing off-key in the shower. These imperfections make you human, relatable, and utterly lovable.

I love the future we envision together. We support each other’s goals, cheering one another on as we navigate the path toward our dreams. The thought of building a life together, creating a home filled with love and shared experiences, fills my heart with anticipation and excitement. The future we imagine is one that I am eager to explore with you by my side.

In conclusion, the reasons why I love you are as vast and varied as the universe itself. It is a love that defies logic and surpasses the limitations of language. From the depths of my being, I love you for the person you are, the way you make me feel, the memories we cherish, your quirks and imperfections, and the future we envision together. My love for you is boundless, unconditional, and everlasting.

A 5-paragraph essay about love

I’ve gathered all the samples (and a few bonus ones) in one PDF. It’s free to download. So, you can keep it at hand when the time comes to write a love essay.

Ready to Write Your Essay About Love?

Now that you know the definition of a love essay and have many topic ideas, it’s time to write your A-worthy paper! Here go the steps:

Check all the examples of what is love essay from this post.
Choose the topic and angle that fits your prompt best.
Write your original and inspiring story.

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Short Essay: About Love

A couple of short essay examples about love.

Table of Contents

About Love Essay Example 1

Love is a universal emotion that has been written about and explored in literature, art, and music throughout human history. It is a complex feeling that can manifest in many different ways, including romantic love, familial love, and platonic love. While love can bring joy and happiness, it can also cause heartache and pain. However, research suggests that love can have both positive and negative effects on mental and physical health. In this essay, we will explore the different aspects of love, including its effects on health, and the importance of effort and communication in maintaining strong relationships.

Love is a complex emotion that can manifest in many different ways. One of the most common forms of love is romantic love, which involves a deep emotional and physical attraction to another person. This type of love is often associated with feelings of euphoria and passion, but it can also bring heartache and disappointment. Familial love, on the other hand, is the love between family members, such as parents and children, siblings, and grandparents. This type of love is often unconditional and enduring, providing a sense of security and belonging. Platonic love is the love between friends, which can be just as strong and meaningful as other forms of love.

Research suggests that love can have both positive and negative effects on mental and physical health. Studies have shown that people in loving relationships tend to have lower levels of stress and anxiety, better cardiovascular health, and longer lifespans. However, love can also cause negative health effects, such as depression and anxiety when relationships end. In addition, unhealthy relationships can lead to emotional and physical abuse, which can have long-lasting effects on mental and physical health.

Love requires effort and communication in order to maintain strong relationships and overcome challenges. Effort involves making time for one another, showing affection, and supporting each other through difficult times. Effective communication is also essential in building and maintaining relationships. This includes listening actively, expressing feelings and needs clearly, and resolving conflicts in a healthy and respectful manner. Without effort and communication, relationships can easily break down, leading to feelings of loneliness and isolation.

In conclusion, love is a complex emotion that can take many different forms. While it can bring joy and happiness, it can also bring heartache and pain. Research suggests that love can have both positive and negative effects on mental and physical health. Therefore, it is important to put in the effort and communication required to maintain strong relationships and overcome challenges. By doing so, we can experience the many benefits of love and create meaningful connections with others.

About Love Essay Example 2

Love is a complex emotion that has been the subject of literature, music, and art for centuries. It can be defined as a strong feeling of affection and attachment towards someone or something. Love takes many forms, including romantic love, familial love, and love between friends. In this essay, we will explore the different types of love and the impact they have on our lives. We will also examine the joys and sorrows that come with loving someone or something deeply.

Romantic love is perhaps the most well-known form of love. It is characterized by intense feelings of attraction, passion, and desire between two people. Romantic love is often associated with physical intimacy and can take many different forms, including long-term relationships, casual dating, and one-night stands.

When people are in romantic love, they often feel a range of emotions, including excitement, happiness, and nervousness. However, romantic love can also be accompanied by pain and heartbreak. When relationships end, it can be difficult to cope with the loss of someone who was once so important to us. Nevertheless, the joys of romantic love often outweigh the risks, as it can bring great happiness and fulfillment to our lives.

Familial love refers to the love between family members, including parents, siblings, and children. This type of love is often unconditional, which means that it is not based on factors such as physical appearance or success. Familial love is often characterized by a deep sense of loyalty and support, and it can be a source of great comfort and security.

However, familial love is not always easy. Family members can have conflicts and disagreements, and it can be difficult to navigate these relationships. In some cases, familial love can also be accompanied by pain and heartbreak, such as when family members pass away or become estranged from one another. Despite these challenges, familial love is an important part of our lives, and it can bring us great happiness and fulfillment.

Love between friends refers to the deep affection and attachment that can develop between people who are not romantically involved. This type of love is often characterized by shared interests, experiences, and values. Friends can provide us with support, encouragement, and a sense of belonging.

However, love between friends can also be accompanied by challenges. Friends can have conflicts and disagreements, and it can be difficult to navigate these relationships. In some cases, friendships can end, and it can be difficult to cope with the loss of someone who was once so important to us. Despite these challenges, love between friends is an important part of our lives, and it can bring us great happiness and fulfillment.

In conclusion, love is a complex emotion that takes many different forms. Romantic love, familial love, and love between friends all have their joys and sorrows. While love can bring great happiness and fulfillment to our lives, it can also be accompanied by pain and heartbreak. Nevertheless, the importance of love in our lives cannot be overstated, as it is a fundamental part of what makes us human.

About Love Essay Example 3

Love is an emotion that has been the subject of countless songs, poems, and stories throughout history. It is a feeling that can take many forms and can be experienced in various relationships, including romantic, familial, and platonic. Love can bring great joy and fulfillment, but it can also be accompanied by pain and heartbreak. In this essay, we will explore the different forms of love and the ways in which it can affect our lives.

Love is a complex emotion that can take many forms. Romantic love is often the first type of love that comes to mind, and it is characterized by feelings of attraction, passion, and intimacy. This type of love can be experienced between two people of any gender and can lead to long-lasting relationships, marriage, and a family. Familial love is the love that exists between family members, such as parents and children or siblings. This type of love is often unconditional and can provide a sense of security and support. Lastly, platonic love is the love that exists between friends. This type of love can be just as strong as romantic or familial love, but it is not based on physical attraction or blood relations.

Love can bring great joy and fulfillment, but it can also be accompanied by pain and heartbreak. When love is reciprocated, it can create a sense of happiness and contentment that is difficult to describe. However, when love is not returned, it can lead to feelings of rejection, sadness, and even depression. In romantic relationships, heartbreak can occur when one partner decides to end the relationship or when infidelity is involved. In familial relationships, heartbreak can occur when a parent and child have a falling out or when siblings become estranged. In platonic relationships, heartbreak can occur when a friend moves away or when a friendship ends due to a disagreement.

Expressions of love can include physical touch, words of affirmation, acts of service, and quality time spent together. Physical touch can include hugging, kissing, holding hands, or any other physical contact that shows affection. Words of affirmation can include saying “I love you,” complimenting your partner, or expressing your appreciation for someone. Acts of service can include doing something nice for your partner, such as cooking dinner or cleaning the house. Quality time spent together can include going on a date, watching a movie, or simply spending time talking and enjoying each other’s company. These expressions of love can help to strengthen relationships and create a sense of intimacy.

In conclusion, love is a complex emotion that can take on many forms and can affect our lives in various ways. It can bring great joy and fulfillment, but it can also be accompanied by pain and heartbreak. By understanding the different forms of love and the expressions of love, we can create stronger relationships and experience the full range of emotions that love can bring.

About Mr. Greg

Mr. Greg is an English teacher from Edinburgh, Scotland, currently based in Hong Kong. He has over 5 years teaching experience and recently completed his PGCE at the University of Essex Online. In 2013, he graduated from Edinburgh Napier University with a BEng(Hons) in Computing, with a focus on social media.

Mr. Greg’s English Cloud was created in 2020 during the pandemic, aiming to provide students and parents with resources to help facilitate their learning at home.

Whatsapp: +85259609792

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Essay on Love

Students are often asked to write an essay on Love in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

Let’s take a look…

100 Words Essay on Love

Understanding love.

Love is a powerful emotion, felt by all creatures. It’s a bond that connects us, making us care deeply for others. From family to friends, we experience love in different forms.

Types of Love

There are many types of love. We love our family unconditionally, our friends deeply, and our pets loyally. This shows love’s versatility.

The Power of Love

Love can bring happiness, comfort, and warmth. It can heal wounds and bring peace. The power of love is truly magical.

Love’s Challenges

Love isn’t always easy. It can bring pain and heartache. But overcoming these challenges strengthens love.

Love is a beautiful journey, filled with joy and challenges. It’s a fundamental part of life.

Also check:

10 Lines on Love
Paragraph on Love
Speech on Love

250 Words Essay on Love

The essence of love.

Love, a universal sentiment, is a complex and multidimensional concept that has been the subject of countless discourses and studies. It is a powerful emotion, a binding force that transcends physicality and enters the realm of the spiritual.

The Multifaceted Nature of Love

Love is not monolithic; it is multifaceted and varies in intensity and expression. It can be romantic, platonic, familial, or self-love. Each type is vital and contributes to our overall well-being. Romantic love, for instance, is often characterized by passion and intimacy. Platonic love, on the other hand, is grounded in intellectual connection and shared interests.

The Transformative Power of Love

Love has the power to transform individuals and societies. It fosters empathy, kindness, and understanding, breaking down barriers and promoting unity. Love can heal wounds, mend broken hearts, and inspire acts of selflessness and sacrifice. It is the catalyst for human growth and the foundation of our humanity.

Despite its beauty, love is not without challenges. It can lead to heartbreak, disappointment, and despair. However, these trials are part of the journey of love, teaching us resilience and the value of vulnerability.

The Enduring Mystery of Love

Despite our attempts to understand and define love, it remains a profound mystery. It is an experience that is deeply personal yet universally shared, a paradox that adds to its allure. Love, in its essence, is an exploration of the depths of the human heart, a journey into the soul’s innermost chambers.

In conclusion, love is a multifaceted, transformative, and enduring emotion that shapes our lives in profound and intricate ways. It is the essence of our humanity, a testament to our capacity for empathy, compassion, and connection.

500 Words Essay on Love

The concept of love.

Love, a four-letter word that encapsulates a plethora of emotions, is a universal concept that transcends all barriers. It is a deeply personal and subjective experience, yet it also serves as a communal bond that ties societies together. The complexity of love is such that it can be viewed from various perspectives, including biological, psychological, and philosophical.

Biological Perspective of Love

From a biological standpoint, love is a potent cocktail of chemicals. Neurotransmitters such as oxytocin and dopamine are primarily responsible for the feelings of attachment and pleasure associated with love. The release of these chemicals in the brain creates a sense of euphoria, leading to the emotional highs that are often associated with romantic love. This biochemical perspective, however, only scratches the surface of the profound complexity of love.

Psychological Perspective of Love

Psychologically, love is a dynamic process that evolves over time. According to Sternberg’s Triangular Theory of Love, it consists of three components: intimacy, passion, and commitment. Intimacy refers to feelings of closeness and connectedness, passion involves intense feelings and sexual attraction, while commitment refers to the decision to remain with another. The balance between these components determines the type of love one experiences, ranging from infatuation (passion alone) to consummate love (a balance of all three).

Philosophical Perspective of Love

Philosophically, love is often viewed as an existential need. It is seen as a path to self-discovery and personal growth. The philosopher Plato suggested that love is the pursuit of the whole, a quest for completeness. This idea is echoed in the concept of ‘soulmates’ prevalent in popular culture. Yet, love is not solely about finding the ‘missing piece’; it is also about selflessly caring for another, seeking their happiness, and accepting them unconditionally.

Love as a Social Construct

Beyond individual experience, love is a social construct that shapes societal norms and values. It is a driving force behind many cultural practices and traditions. Love is celebrated through literature, music, and art, reflecting its deep-rooted significance in human society. It is a catalyst for social cohesion, fostering empathy and mutual understanding among individuals.

Conclusion: The Complexity and Importance of Love

In conclusion, love is a multifaceted concept that cannot be confined to a single definition. It is a biological process, a psychological state, a philosophical pursuit, and a societal bond. It is a complex interplay of emotions, thoughts, and behaviors that profoundly influences our lives. Despite its complexity, or perhaps because of it, love remains one of the most enduring and universal aspects of the human experience. It is a testament to the depth and breadth of our capacity for connection, compassion, and growth.

That’s it! I hope the essay helped you.

If you’re looking for more, here are essays on other interesting topics:

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The Psychology of Love

Love has fascinated researchers for decades. We look at what experts have learned about the origins and psychology of love.

Love is a powerful, complex emotional experience that involves changes in your body chemistry, including your neurotransmitters (brain chemicals). It impacts your social relationships in varied ways, affecting how you relate to others around you.

There are many types — like the love you share with your partner, family, and friends — and each version you feel is unique. It can fill you with emotions ranging from joy to heartbreak.

What is love?

Love is an emotion of strong affection, tenderness, or devotion toward a subject or object. When you love a person you experience pleasurable sensations in their presence and are sensitive about their reactions to you.

Research from 2016 points to neuropeptides and neurotransmitters as the source of love. Feelings of love help us form social bonds with others. As social creatures, these natural chemicals developed to help us survive by encouraging:

mutual support
reproduction
cooperation

It seems like so much more, though. Calling love an interaction of brain chemicals doesn’t quite describe how it can warm your heart and captivate your soul.

The psychology of love

Attachment is a component of love. Strong attachment bonds set mammals apart from many other types of animals, though other groups — including fish and birds — also form strong social connections to help them survive.

A 2017 review describes four types of mammalian attachment bonds as:

pair bonds, where individuals form a close, long-term social connection
bonds between parents and their infants
bonds between peers
conspecific bonds, or bonds between individuals of the same species

Most instances of human love fall into one of these categories. For example, the love you feel for a close friend could be classed as a peer bond.

A romantic relationship is a type of pair bond. It can start as mutual attraction and evolve into love over time.

When you like someone, you enjoy their companionship and care about their well-being. When you love them, those feelings are unconditional.

Physical effects of love

Love can do more than help you bond with another person. It can even impact your physical health.

Love may affect your immune system. A 2019 study found that falling in love resulted in immune system changes similar to protective viral infection responses.

It might also safeguard against cancer, according to a 2021 study that found tissue from pair-bonded mice was less likely to grow tumors than tissue from mice with disruptions to their pair bonds.

Can you control whether you fall in love?

You might feel like you have no control over the love you feel, but research says otherwise. Love is like an emotion that you can regulate by generating new feelings or changing the intensity of the feelings you have.

Emotional regulation strategies include:

Situation selection: avoiding or seeking situations based on how they make you feel.
Distraction: engaging in another activity to reduce the strength of your feelings.
Expression suppression: hiding how you feel.
Cognitive reappraisal: changing your thoughts so that your feelings can change.

So, if you’re disappointed because the love you feel isn’t reciprocated, you may be able to take your mind off it.

The triangular theory of love

American psychologist Dr. Robert Sternberg theorizes that love is based on three domains:

intimacy (emotional)
commitment (cognitive)
passion (physical)

Each domain represents a triangle corner in Sternberg’s triangular theory of love . The theory accounts for seven different kinds of love, based on which domains are involved. We look at these types of love below.

Types of love

The seven kinds of love in Sternberg’s triangular theory cover a range of relationship types:

Liking . You share emotional intimacy, but there’s no physical passion or commitment. Friendship falls under this category.
Infatuation . Passion is the key component of infatuation. If you’re physically attracted to another person but haven’t developed emotional intimacy or established a commitment, this is infatuation.
Empty . What Sternberg calls “empty love” is a committed relationship that lacks passion or intimacy. Examples include an arranged marriage or a previously emotional or physical relationship that’s lost its spark.
Romatic . When you’re romantically involved with another person, you share physical passion and emotional intimacy, but you haven’t made any long-term plans or commitments.
Companionate . You are committed and emotionally connected, such as best friends or family. Marriages can also be companionate if the passion is gone, but you still share the commitment and emotional bond.
Fatuous . If you’ve been swept up by passion into an engagement or marriage without emotional intimacy, this is fatuous love.
Consummate . Consummate love is the goal for many when they envision marriage or a spousal partnership. This kind of love includes commitment, passion, and emotional intimacy.

Let’s recap

Love comes in many forms. You can love more than one person simultaneously, in different ways.

Emotional intimacy is present in many relationships, but not all. The same is true for passion and commitment.

Attachment is another relationship element that may be present in love. Positive attachments are emotionally supportive and provide you with a feeling of security.

Last medically reviewed on September 20, 2022

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Feldman R. (2017). The neurobiology of human attachments. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1364661316301991
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How to Know When You Love Someone

Baby don't hurt me

Kendra Cherry, MS, is a psychosocial rehabilitation specialist, psychology educator, and author of the "Everything Psychology Book."

Emily is a board-certified science editor who has worked with top digital publishing brands like Voices for Biodiversity, Study.com, GoodTherapy, Vox, and Verywell.

Verywell / Laura Porter

How Do You Know You're Feeling Love for Someone?

Is Love Influenced By Biology or Culture?

How to show love to another person.

Tips for Cultivating

Negative Emotions Associated With Love

Take the love quiz.

When it comes to love, some people would say it is one of the most important human emotions . Love is a set of emotions and behaviors characterized by intimacy, passion, and commitment. It involves care, closeness, protectiveness, attraction, affection, and trust.

Many say it's not an emotion in the way we typically understand them, but an essential physiological drive.

Love is a physiological motivation such as hunger, thirst, sleep, and sex drive.

There are countless songs, books, poems, and other works of art about love (you probably have one in mind as we speak!). Yet despite being one of the most studied behaviors, it is still the least understood. For example, researchers debate whether love is a biological or cultural phenomenon.

How Do You Know You're Feeling Love for Someone?

What are some of the signs of love? Researchers have made distinctions between feelings of liking and loving another person.

Zick Rubin's Scales of Liking and Loving

According to psychologist Zick Rubin, romantic love is made up of three elements:

Attachment : Needing to be with another person and desiring physical contact and approval
Caring : Valuing the other person's happiness and needs as much as your own
Intimacy : Sharing private thoughts, feelings, and desires with the other person

Based on this view of romantic love, Rubin developed two questionnaires to measure these variables, known as Rubin's Scales of Liking and Loving . While people tend to view people they like as pleasant, love is marked by being devoted, possessive, and confiding in one another.

Are There Different Types of Love?

Yup—not all forms of love are the same, and psychologists have identified a number of different types of love that people may experience.

These types of love include:

Friendship : This type of love involves liking someone and sharing a certain degree of intimacy.
Infatuation : This form of love often involves intense feelings of attraction without a sense of commitment; it often takes place early in a relationship and may deepen into a more lasting love.
Passionate love : This type of love is marked by intense feelings of longing and attraction; it often involves an idealization of the other person and a need to maintain constant physical closeness.
Compassionate/companionate love : This form of love is marked by trust, affection, intimacy, and commitment.
Unrequited love : This form of love happens when one person loves another who does not return those feelings.

Robert Sternberg's Triangular Theory of Love

Specifically, psychologist Robert Sternberg developed his well-regarded triangular theory of love in the early 1980s. Much research has built upon his work and demonstrated its universality across cultures.

Sternberg broke love into three components—intimacy, passion, and commitment—that interact to produce seven types of love .

Love is most likely influenced by both biology and culture. Although hormones and biology are important, the way we express and experience love is also influenced by our own conceptions of love.

Some researchers suggest that love is a basic human emotion just like happiness or anger, while others believe that it is a cultural phenomenon that arises partly due to social pressures and expectations.

Research has found that romantic love exists in all cultures, which suggests that love has a strong biological component. It is a part of human nature to seek out and find love. However, culture can significantly affect how individuals think about, experience, and display romantic love.

Is Love an Emotion?

Psychologists, sociologists, and researchers disagree somewhat on the characterization of love. Many say it's not an emotion in the way we typically understand them, but an essential physiological drive. On the other hand, the American Psychological Association defines it as "a complex emotion." Still, others draw a distinction between primary and secondary emotions and put love in the latter category, maintaining that it derives from a mix of primary emotions.

There is no single way to practice love. Every relationship is unique, and each person brings their own history and needs. Some things that you can do to show love to the people you care about include:

Be willing to be vulnerable.
Be willing to forgive.
Do your best, and be willing to apologize when you make mistakes.
Let them know that you care.
Listen to what they have to say.
Prioritize spending time with the other person.
Reciprocate loving gestures and acts of kindness.
Recognize and acknowledge their good qualities.
Share things about yourself.
Show affection.
Make it unconditional.

How Love Impacts Your Mental Health

Love, attachment, and affection have an important impact on well-being and quality of life. Loving relationships have been linked to:

Lower risk of heart disease
Decreased risk of dying after a heart attack
Better health habits
Increased longevity
Lower stress levels
Less depression
Lower risk of diabetes

Tips for Cultivating Love

Lasting relationships are marked by deep levels of trust, commitment, and intimacy. Some things that you can do to help cultivate loving relationships include:

Try loving-kindness meditation. Loving-kindness meditation (LKM) is a technique often used to promote self-acceptance and reduce stress, but it has also been shown to promote a variety of positive emotions and improve interpersonal relationships. LKM involves meditating while thinking about a person you love or care about, concentrating on warm feelings and your desire for their well-being and happiness.
Communicate. Everyone's needs are different. The best way to ensure that your needs and your loved one's needs are met is to talk about them. Helping another person feel loved involves communicating that love to them through words and deeds. Some ways to do this include showing that you care, making them feel special, telling them they are loved , and doing things for them.
Tackle conflict in a healthy way . Never arguing is not necessarily a sign of a healthy relationship—more often than not, it means that people are avoiding an issue rather than discussing it. Rather than avoid conflict, focus on hashing out issues in ways that are healthy in order to move a relationship forward in a positive way.

As Shakespeare said, the course of love never did run smooth. Love can vary in intensity and can change over time. It is associated with a range of positive emotions, including happiness, excitement, life satisfaction, and euphoria, but it can also result in negative emotions such as jealousy and stress.

No relationship is perfect, so there will always be problems, conflicts, misunderstandings, and disappointments that can lead to distress or heartbreak.

Some of the potential pitfalls of experiencing love include:

Increased stress
Obsessiveness
Possessiveness

While people are bound to experience some negative emotions associated with love, it can become problematic if those negative feelings outweigh the positive or if they start to interfere with either person's ability to function normally. Relationship counseling can be helpful in situations where couples need help coping with miscommunication, stress, or emotional issues.

History of Love

Only fairly recently has love become the subject of science. In the past, the study of love was left to "the creative writer to depict for us the necessary conditions for loving," according to Sigmund Freud . "In consequence, it becomes inevitable that science should concern herself with the same materials whose treatment by artists has given enjoyment to mankind for thousands of years," he added.

Research on love has grown tremendously since Freud's remarks. But early explorations into the nature and reasons for love drew considerable criticism. During the 1970s, U.S. Senator William Proxmire railed against researchers who were studying love and derided the work as a waste of taxpayer dollars.

Despite early resistance, research has revealed the importance of love in both child development and adult health.

Our fast and free love quiz can help you determine if what you've got is the real deal or simply a temporary fling or infatuation.

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By Kendra Cherry, MSEd Kendra Cherry, MS, is a psychosocial rehabilitation specialist, psychology educator, and author of the "Everything Psychology Book."

Essay on Love for Students and Children in 1000 Words

Here you will an essay on love for students and children in 1000+ words. It includes significance, different views, friendship vs love, history and more about love in paragraphs.

There is never a time or place for true love. It happens accidentally, in a heartbeat, in a single flashing, throbbing moment. – Sarah Dessen, The Truth About Forever

Table of Contents

There are different hierarchies of necessity defined to understand human psychology. It composes the first level of the authority of the basic needs of life that is Air, water, food are the most essential and unavoidable needs of human existence.

Since they are quickly receiving, we pay little attention to them. The second stage of the hierarchy is the love for love among our family and friends.

Materialistic needs to follow this, and when a person meets all those needs, he looks for certain things additional and all these things mean nothing to him.

Further, he moves to self-realization. However, here, we will focus on the second level of the hierarchy – the significance of love in our life.

The significance of family love for emotional well-being cannot be underestimated. The value of family love experienced by an individual affects it from infancy through adolescence to adulthood. Love, in the family’s context, is unlike any other.

Family members are the people with whom we most involve. They make sense of our life, and anything about you and they are the persons you cannot live without them. People call them when something good or bad happens.

Definition of Love in One Line

If you define love in one line – Love is one of the most intimate feelings anyone experiences.

Love is all about

To love and wish to be loved are natural human characters. Everyone is in seek of genuine love throughout life. Blessed are those who get their love and relish comfort.

Love Is All Around You. It requires all that is the right perception. As soon as a baby takes birth, he or she endows with paternal love. Parents struggle day and night to nurture and provide him with the best in this world can offer.

They sweat during the day and then wake up at night taking care of their cherub. When the baby grows a little younger, she or he gets the love of his peers. With her growing age, the circle of love also widens. Friends are milestones in one’s life. Further, we all love our faithful friends who have stood for us in the middle of our lives.

Then there comes the most crucial phase of life. The search for a life partner begins. Genuine love is experienced and defined in this phase of life. It is normal human behavior to reproduce and continue the chain of life.

To do this, we all look for the most compatible person. With whom we want to share all the mistakes and successes of life . Love opens the way for life and future generations. A new cycle begins at this stage of life. However, this is the usual course of love and not necessarily compulsory.

Love felling on Someone

Love is beyond any restrictions and rules. Loving someone is enjoyed being the best situation in your life. Love has extreme powers and can make everything possible.

We all have hidden potential. It requires all that is to recognize and inspire. Someone can share the hard times of life with the right person by his side.

“Loving yourself” is the main mantra and driving force of the universe.

A person cannot love anyone if he or she does not love themselves. Being in love and others to love even the desire can only be realized if you value and love your life and existence in this cosmos.

Love knows no bounds and discriminations. This world is a beautiful creation of the almighty, and with love, we can fill the best of colors, making it more vibrant.

A person without love with a friend is the devil.

From ancient times, man’s primary purpose was to live in groups. This fellowship among humans leads to societies. Even now, in the age of technology , man needs a mate to help with life and share feelings.

Connection of True Friendship and Love

Someone who without being in your life, you know it would be completely different. Yes, this is the girlfriend who gives emotional love balance in the romantic situation.

Friendships are one of life’s greatest joys. Find someone with you can share your heartbeat – someone who understands and accepts you the way you are invaluable. When we have a deep friendship with someone of the opposite sex, it is a tremendous loving status.

There is much more to enjoy and learn in both sexes. However, sometimes, these friendships of the opposite sex can also be an enormous challenge.

One of the most joyful but frightening barriers a friendship faces when an individual falls in love with his best friend of the opposite sex. Feelings can be intense, and the fear of revealing them can paralyze.

After being a wonderful friend with her for some time, you should be able to understand her moods. You shall feel love if the friendship has become more of a romance and to her.

If you feel these signs, you might talk about them with the wonderful friend you love deeply, best friends become able to talk about almost everything.

Life is an ongoing journey, and when you find the minor things in life to love, it gets much sensible. People have been so fragile that they will pour love into everything.

Surroundings yourself with love, with those you love and those also love you. The feeling of love also occurs with the surrounding inhabitants like pets, even if you have just a black Labrador puppy.

The Unconditional Love for Love

Unconditional love is an extraordinary thing, and two persons can give and receiving that kind of affection that is love for love. This is progressively clear in modern society, where the fast-paced lifestyle hardly leaves any space for investments and emotional connections.

This may be precisely the reason it is the ideal time to bring the theme of unconditional love into the limelight. People need to feel hopeful, and the tales and experiences of unconditional love merge their faith in humanity.

History of Loves

The history books offer great records of the love lives of many characters are in our memory as ideal examples of love. The feeling of belonging is born precisely the moment you are in love.

Except for love with the family members, it may happen with others also, which is near to you. Particularly those who care about their soul mate find peace in this gift of God.

The sages of all times have said that love gives a deeper meaning to everything. The power of love makes us feel that we are not alone. Loving the right person makes you feel the same as being in your sweet home.

The grace of God is in love

Always remember that if you are faithful to your love, your prayers, efforts, and thoughts will be answered by God. If you love someone with everything you have, you will become successful in completing your love story.

People find themselves above criticism, judgment, and the feeling of anger when they are in love. The sensible feeling can come at any moment. You can be in the car and never know how and when love knocks the doors of your heart.

If you are in love, you have the blessing of love. No person in this world is far from the grace of God, so if there is no one in your life, do not feel that you are far from the grace of God. God loves you.

Love is essential for a person’s emotional well-being. Growing up in a loving environment helps someone to become an emotionally healthy adolescent and adult, while a lack of love or living in an unloved family or surroundings can negatively affect the long-term emotional well-being.

No matter what happens in your life, it can always change the situation for the better with support of love.

If someone has grown up with a lack of family love or is having family problems, we can do several things to improve and protect the emotional well-being.

Some of these things include seeing a counselor online or in person, choosing your own family and putting yourself first, instead of letting others overthrow you.

Our family shapes us, but if you received a bad hand, it does not mean that you cannot take things into your own hands and create the change you deserve.

Love is patient; love is kind. Not envious, not proud. It is not selfish: It does not keep any error records: It does not dishonor others; it is not easily irritated.

Love does not delight in evil, but enjoys the truth. It always hopes, always trusts protect, and always perseveres. Love never fails. I hope you loved this essay on love.

The Variety of Values: Essays on Morality, Meaning, and Love

Susan Wolf, The Variety of Values: Essays on Morality, Meaning, and Love , Oxford University Press, 2015, 263pp., $45.00 (pbk), ISBN 9780195332810.

Reviewed by Sara Protasi, University of Puget Sound

Few essays evoke the same enthusiastic praise for their combination of rigorous reasoning, elegant writing style and influential thesis as Susan Wolf's "Moral Saints." [1] Its placement as the inaugural piece in this collection allows one to see that it is not only chronologically but also conceptually prior to Wolf's subsequent essays. It contains the seeds, in Wolf's own metaphor, from which sprouted an impressively cohesive collection of arguments concerning the forcefulness and inescapability of moral demands, and the significance and resilience of nonmoral values.

In the introduction, with a mixture of humility and pride, Wolf calls attention to the systematic nature of these thirteen articles (only one of which is previously unpublished), and details the connections among them. She highlights central, recurrent ideas and explains how the essays relate to the original themes of "Moral Saints," namely how there is more to value than morality, how moral considerations may be less forceful than moral philosophers have often portrayed them, and how different value reasons can pull us in opposite directions. The first part of the book, "Moral and Nonmoral Values," focuses on the nature and importance of nonmoral values, and their relation to moral ones. The connected topic of the structure and importance of morality is discussed in part 4, "The Concept of Duty." In the middle, part 2 ("Meaning in Life") explores the topic of meaningfulness, and part 3 discusses "Love".

Wolf devotes the final section of the introduction to the cover of the book, which features a still life by Willem Heda, the Dutch painter, depicting the remains of a luscious feast. Wolf tells us that she appreciates the Dutch Golden Age genre because of its rich textures, and one cannot help but think of the rich textures of her philosophical writing. Wolf explains that she is attracted by what she considers these paintings' characteristic "ambivalence and ambiguity" (8): in the Calvinist context where they were produced and sold, sensual pleasures and appreciation of material goods were condemned, and still lifes were allegories of transience, warnings against appreciating things that are doomed to decay. But the paintings themselves are magnificent objects, and their melancholic message is obfuscated, contradicted, and possibly nullified by the very means with which it is conveyed.

Wolf is here pointing to a tension that infuses all the essays, one way or the other: the tension between moral demands ("don't value material goods!") and the demands of beauty, of taste, and, in general, of nonmoral value. She constantly shows us how decent, well-rounded agents cannot, and should not, always wholeheartedly comply with their moral obligations, for two reasons. First, because nonmoral values are intrinsically important, and Wolf convincingly articulates this importance throughout the book, highlighting the shallowness of the dichotomy morality vs. self-interest that was characteristic of moral philosophy when "Moral Saints" was published. Second, because morality cannot keep its irreplaceable role of requiring us to take into account the needs and interests of others, if it is too demanding. When we conceive of morality as overriding every other practical consideration, people will not have "the freedom to live lives that they can find to be good and rewarding" (228) and will be less inclined to respect moral imperatives.

Notwithstanding her commitment to the plurality of values, however, Wolf ends up neglecting some crucial aspects of what is symbolized in her beloved Dutch Golden Age paintings: our embodied, emotional nature, our being subject to impulses and unendorsed habits, our being attuned to and appreciative of simple pleasures, such as the pleasures of the table that are the subject of Heda's still lifes.

To start with this last point: Wolf rarely talks in positive terms about the more mundane kinds of nonmoral values that occupy a central role in most people's lives. For instance, in "Good-for-Nothings" (ch. 5), she rejects a welfarist theory of value, arguing that there can be things that are good independently of the fact that they benefit us: "These things are not good because they benefit us; they benefit us because they are good" (76). Her examples of good things are: reading Middlemarch , watching The Wire , practicing the cello, training for a marathon, appreciating seventeenth century Dutch paintings, and more generally "good art, good philosophy, good science" (73). She explicitly contrasts these activities and pursuits with less valuable counterparts: reading The Da Vinci Code , watching Project Runway , and playing Angry Birds.

Wolf's examples of good things are well-chosen to resonate with her audience of professional philosophers in the Anglophone tradition, in its current demographic make-up. Extending Wolf's point to different cultural and socio-economic contexts seems relatively straightforward. For instance, we could talk of reading the Mahabharata , watching Taiwanese puppetry shows, practicing the djembe. However, this expansion would leave unaltered the most significant feature of Wolf's examples: they are all meant to be expressions of excellence . After saying that art, philosophy, and science are among the "things of immeasurable value" (76) with which the world is replete, and that "we may think of our lives as better, and more fortunate, insofar as we are able to be in appreciative touch with some of the most valuable of these" (76), Wolf goes on to say that "a good human life involves 'enjoyment of the excellent'" (77). But having immeasurable value is not the same as being excellent, and treating them as equivalent has two consequences.

First, it makes one more likely to overlook admittedly less complex sources of values, such as those stemming from appreciation of natural beauty, or from sensual activities such as eating, or having sex, the kind of transient but valuable experiences that were shunned by Dutch Calvinists.

Secondly, it risks restricting the chance of a "better, and more fortunate" life to those who are capable of experiencing excellence. Consider a cognitively disabled person. Her impairment prevents her from intellectual excellence: she cannot read Middlemarch , nor understand The Wire , and she could never distinguish a Rembrandt from a Kinkade. She does, however, watch Project Runway , she can read children books, and she really enjoys eating juicy apples and walking in the park. Her impairment also prevents her from moral excellence. While she may be naturally virtuous, in the Aristotelian sense, she cannot achieve practical wisdom, distinguish between hypothetical and categorical imperatives, or maximize utility. Finally, while she is affectionate to her family members, her loving behavior is often immature and self-centered, comparable to that of a toddler. But even though moral, intellectual, and "interpersonal" excellence are bound to be out of her reach, she is in appreciative touch with some things of immeasurable value, and I hesitate to think that her life is less good and less fortunate than mine.

Another context in which Wolf's view could be enriched by taking into consideration a greater variety of psychological profiles is her discussion of personal love. Love is the main topic of chapters 9, 10 and 11, but also comes up in other essays as an exemplary source of "values . . . that compete both motivationally and normatively with moral values" (5). In "The Importance of Love" (ch. 10), Wolf defines love as "caring, deeply and personally, for a person for her own sake" (191). It is an "orientation in the world" that "gives us reasons to live" (191).

Wolf's account is close to the commonsensical understanding of love, and similar to other influential philosophical accounts, such as Harry Frankfurt's. [2] But specific to her approach is how Wolf envisions the role of love's reasons in practical deliberation. In "Morality and Partiality" (ch. 3), for instance, Wolf defends a conception of morality that incorporates what she calls the Impartialist Insight -- "the claim that all persons are equally deserving of well-being and respect" (33) -- in a "moderate" way, so as to be compatible with the demands of partiality "without apology" (35). Her approach on the one hand acknowledges that friendship and love are valuable in themselves, independently of their contribution to morality, but on the other also embraces the possibility of a radical choice in favor of partiality, even at a grave moral cost: the choice of a woman to hide her criminal son from the police, causing an innocent to be imprisoned in his place. Wolf suggests that the woman's hesitation to act according to morality is not only understandable but "positively reasonable . . . . After all, if the meaning of one's life and one's very identity is bound with someone as deeply as a mother's life is characteristically tied to her son's, why should the dictates of impartial morality be regarded as decisive?" (41). She goes on to say that such a woman might be as worthy of admiration and respect as her counterpart who decides not to shelter her son.

While I am sympathetic with Wolf's picture, I worry that she relies on an all-too-rosy picture of motherhood and maternal love, thus implicitly moralizing love itself. To the extent that Wolf convinces us that partiality can reasonably trump impartiality, she succeeds in doing so by describing the mother as engaging in "tortured deliberations" (42), ready to sacrifice her own well-being for the sake of her son's: "Do to me what you like . . . . Judge me as you will. I will go to hell if I have to, but my son is more important to me than my moral salvation." (41). This mother is a selfless martyr. Some readers might in fact take issue with precisely this quasi-fanatical aspect: perhaps she should worry more about the innocent man who will go to jail in her son's place than about her own moral salvation. But even those who feel the pull of Wolf's example, and I am one of them, should bear in mind that there are darker and less valuable ways in which maternal and filial identity are tied up, than pure maternal altruism. Consider the case of a mother who is affected either by narcissistic or borderline personality disorder, or is just plain selfish. [3] Such mothers will be pained at the prospect of their child's going to jail because of the suffering it would cause to them . The shared sense of identity characterizing these relatively common relations is deeply problematic. To the extent that Wolf succeeds in showing that the mother's choice is respectable, or even admirable, she does so by relying not so much on the value of love itself, but on the value of a moralized picture of love.

Consider also Wolf's example in "'One Thought Too Many': Love, Morality, and the Ordering of Commitment" (ch. 9). The essay examines Bernard Williams' famous discussion of the man who rescues his wife instead of another drowning stranger, and who ought not, according to Williams, be motivated by the thought that she is his wife and it is permissible for him to favor her over a stranger. [4] Wolf reviews different interpretations and consequent responses to Williams' thesis, and concludes that the most common reaction is to agree with Williams that "the thought of moral permissibility would be one thought too many if it is understood to occur at the moment of action" (145, original emphases). This view, according to Wolf, is compatible with finding "nothing wrong with a person wondering, in a cool and reflective moment, under what conditions one may give preference to one's loved ones and under what conditions one may not" (146). But -- she argues -- there is in fact something wrong with the husband who reflects, in cold mind, about whether what he did was morally permissible: it is an unappealing personal ideal of a lover. In the essay she offers an alternative ideal, or rather "glimpses of a psychological profile that could be filled out so as to constitute an ideal" (161): a lover who would not constrain his actions to only those that are morally permissible, and who is unlikely to engage in moral deliberation, even hypothetically, over Williams' scenario. Wolf highlights that this is a personal and not a moral ideal, one she wishes she could realize and that she wishes for her children and friends.

Wolf claims to have sketched a psychological profile, but she does not pause to consider whether the husband depicted by Williams is a psychologically ordinary husband. Wolf is clearly sensitive to the constraints imposed on our moral ideals by nonmoral values. But there are also other constraints, imposed by our psychology.

I myself know that I fall short of being the kind of person that Wolf has in mind. I engage in the post-hoc reflections about what morality requires that Wolf deems as obtrusive, and the reason I do is that I sometimes need morality to nudge me to fulfill the demands of love. [5] Lovers are not always capable of putting their beloveds' interests before their own, for a variety of factors: weakness of the will, egoism, and, more relevant to Williams' scenario, primal instincts and emotions such as the hunger that made fathers fight with their sons over a piece of bread in concentration camps, [6] or the panic that makes a man flee in front of an avalanche instead of protecting his wife and children, [7] or, less dramatically, the sleep deprivation and exhaustion that causes petty fights between parents of a newborn.

One might respond on Wolf's behalf that she is explicit about the ideal nature of her lover, so that we should exclude those psychological facts that count as character flaws. But imagine a case in which our husband is a military rescuer. He has been trained to defeat his survival instinct, so there is no risk of him running for his life in front of an avalanche. However, he has also been trained to save perfect strangers. This is not only a deeply engrained habit, but also a part of his identity. When the avalanche approaches, his wife is at 50 meters from him, but another woman, older and less fit than his wife, is closer. It would be physically possible for him to run faster and save his wife. However, his training and professional identity kick in and he runs to save the stranger. Would a post-hoc reflection be inappropriate in this case? Could this person not be a desirable, even ideal love partner?

Wolf's decent human agents are very decent, but sometimes not quite human enough. Reflecting over less idealized profiles of lovers allows us to see also how the very boundaries between normative and axiological domains are sometimes, maybe often, blurry: in real life situations, it is often difficult to distinguish between different kinds of reasons and values. Whether or not a tired woman wakes her husband when the baby needs to be changed may be a complex deliberative act, and the final decision might be justified by a moral reason (he changed the baby earlier in the night, so it's only fair she lets him sleep), a loving one (he is sleeping so well, poor thing), both, or none (there was no time to think, she just instinctively rushed to the crib). Appreciating the variety of values means also appreciating the variety of value , its own internal miscellaneous messiness.

This remark is of course Wolfian in spirit, and I see it showcased by the essay where we find the most psychologically realistic, and thus highly flawed, examples of human agents: "Loving Attention: Lessons in Love from The Philadelphia Story " (ch. 10). Wolf uses the movie The Philadelphia Story as a case study for understanding Iris Murdoch's notion of loving attention as a moral virtue. Wolf's conclusion is that loving attention can be a moral virtue insofar as it is interpreted as "loving of the world" (177). This conclusion is reached through a detailed analysis of the movie and the loving styles of it characters. This method of inquiry, inherently attuned to the complexity of human psychology, not coincidentally leads Wolf to minimize the differences between the domains of value: personal love is argued to be fundamentally analogous to loving the world, including people who are evil and thus unworthy of love, and to love of the arts, and even, maybe, love of chocolate and basketball (cf. footnote 11, 179).

If I had to summarize the gist of my critical remarks in a slogan, it would be: "more chocolate and basketball, please". But I would not be in the position of making such remarks had it not been for Susan Wolf's ground-breaking articulation of the importance of not being saintly.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS For their feedback on this review I thank Aaron Meskin and Shen-yi Liao, and especially Michael Della Rocca and Tyler Doggett for extensive discussions.

[1] Journal of Philosophy 79(8): 419-439 (1982).

[2] It would have been interesting for Wolf to compare her view to Frankfurt's view in The Reasons of Love (Princeton University Press, 2006), especially given their opposite perspectives on the relation between love for others and self-love.

[3] Lydia Davis portrays such a mother in "Selfish" ( The Collected Stories of Lydia Davis , Penguin, 2011, 441-442). The story is chilling because the mother is not depicted as abnormal in a clinical sense, even though of course the distinction between a psychological pathology and a moral flaw may not always be easy to draw.

[4] Bernard Williams, Moral Luck , Cambridge University Press, 1981, 1-19. For simplicity throughout the paper I maintain the husband/wife language, which does not imply endorsing a conventional picture of romantic love, according to which lovers are heterosexual, married, etc.

[5] I do not mean to imply that Wolf is not aware of the existence of conflicts between one's self-interests and the interests of our beloved, as she explicitly talks about these conflicts (see, e.g., the conclusion of ch. 3, p. 46). What I argue here is that the existence of these conflicts should play a larger role in determining what ideals of love are obtainable, and thus desirable.

[6] As recounted by Primo Levi in If This is a Man , Abacus, 2013.

[7] This example is inspired by the movie Force Majeure .

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The Oxford Handbook of the Philosophy of Love

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Love, Value, and Reasons

Department of Philosophy, Indiana University

Adam Leite is Professor of Philosophy and Chair of the Department of Philosophy at Indiana University Bloomington. His interests particularly include epistemology, philosophical psychology, and psychoanalysis. He is also a psychotherapist and a candidate in clinical psychoanalysis at the Chicago Psychoanalytic Institute.

Published: 10 July 2018
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It is a familiar thought that in friendship and romance, people’s good qualities are reasons for loving them. This chapter clarifies the kinds of reasons—and the forms of reasons-responsiveness and evaluation—at issue. It offers a new model for understanding love as a form of valuing. On this model, love is both a response to reasons and a source of reasons, and the two sets of reasons are complementary parts of a single coherent, interlocking package. On this basis the chapter answers various standard objections alleging that the “qualities view” fails to tie us adequately to our loved ones. Love in friendship and romantic contexts is revealed to be a matter of character in many respects. Some of our most fundamental values are manifested in whom we love, why, and how. Small wonder loving is so important to our sense of ourselves as individuals.

Titania : And thy fair virtue’s force perforce doth move me On the first view to say, to swear, I love thee. Bottom : Methinks, mistress, you should have little reason for that: and yet, to say the truth, reason and love keep little company together now-a-days; the more the pity that some honest neighbours will not make them friends. —Shakespeare, Midsummer’s Night’s Dream

The thought that there can be reasons for love, and that a person’s love can be evaluated in relation to those reasons, is familiar in both literature and ordinary life. Ask someone why they love a dear friend and you will hear such things as that he is kind and thoughtful. Want to comfort someone in the aftermath of an acrimonious breakup? List the former amour’s bad interpersonal qualities. Be cautious, however, if the person is still in love. Lovers, not wanting their good sense challenged, do not easily bear criticism of their beloveds. In these ways and many others, it looks as though there are indeed reasons for (and against) love in friendship and romance, reasons that lie in the good or bad qualities of the beloved.

Many philosophers think otherwise. Some deny that there are reasons for love and that love is ever justified or unjustified. 1 This is known as the “no-reasons” view. Others grant that there are reasons for love—the “reasons view”—but deny the so-called “qualities view,” according to which people’s good qualities provide such reasons. These philosophers instead argue, for instance, that the capacity for practical reason, 2 or the relationship between the lover and beloved, 3 is what justifies love.

These alternatives are partly motivated by the thought that there are insurmountable objections to the view that people’s good qualities provide reasons for loving them. Setiya summarizes the usual objections thus:

If you have qualities that are reasons for me to love you, and that justify my love, does it follow that anyone who is aware of these qualities should love you, too? (The problem of universality.) That I should love anyone who has these qualities? (The problem of promiscuity.) That if someone else has more of these qualities, I should love her instead, or more? (The problem of trading up.) That if you lose these qualities, I should stop loving you? (The problem of inconstancy.) None of these implications seems right. It is therefore tempting to reject the picture of love as a rational response to reasons, which are distinctive virtues of the person you love. 4

The fundamental concern here is that every version of the “qualities view” will fail to properly capture the distinctive tie between lover and beloved. Underlying this concern, we contend, is a misunderstanding of the nature of love as a form of valuing. The debate needs to be reframed. We begin (section 1 ) by considering what, exactly, it means to talk of “reasons” for love, clarifying both what kinds of reasons these might be and what forms of reasons-responsiveness and criticizability are at issue. In section 2 , we offer a new model for understanding love as a form of valuing. On this model love is both a response to reasons and a source of reasons, and the two sets of reasons are complementary parts of a single recognizable package. We then turn (section 3 ) to the standard objections about the ways in which the “qualities view” ties us to our loved ones. Both the reasons for loving and the reasons love generates are relevant here, and the model of love as a form of valuing allows us to see why.

1. On Reasons Talk

Talk of reasons appears at two points in recent theorizing about love. Reasons for love would be reasons that favor loving a particular person. Reasons of love, by contrast, are reasons that one gains by loving. Their force arises from love. Our aim in this section is to flesh out the claim that there are reasons for love. We begin with several clarificatory points. We then turn to the structural features of the relevant reasons, the sense in which love can be responsive to reasons, and the question of whether (and in what sense) people can be criticized for loving for bad reasons.

The claim that there are reasons for love is fundamentally a claim about appropriateness and justifying grounds . This claim has two parts. First, in certain contexts certain forms of love are made appropriate by certain considerations about the beloved. Second, these considerations can appropriately function for the lover as grounds for loving. On both counts, the crucial question is whether the person’s love is appropriate or rather defective and deficient, simply qua love . This is the language we speak, for instance, when we recognize someone’s love as shallow, immature, capricious, self-involved, blinkered, obsessive, misplaced .

When reasons talk is thus understood, an important possibility opens up. Different forms of love may be appropriate in different relational contexts. For instance, there’s love in friendship and romantic contexts, parental love, sibling love, and self-love. The justificatory questions and standards of appropriateness might differ in each of these cases. This calls into question the common practice in the philosophical literature of generalizing about reasons for love tout court. In what follows, we focus only on love in friendship and romantic contexts.

We argue elsewhere that love in these contexts is best understood as a reactive attitude: a particular form of positive affective and evaluative interpersonal response to a person on account of what Strawson calls “good will.” 5 More specifically, it is a proper response, in certain interpersonal contexts, to good character traits that make the beloved well suited for intimate relationships. 6 Love in romantic and friendship contexts is thereby a distinctive form of valuing. It is, as we would now put it, a particular sort of valuing orientation toward a particular person. The basic idea (elucidated in section II) is that a valuing orientation is a way of valuing something. It involves not only evaluative judgments but also a distinctive set of interpenetrating affective, desiderative, reflective, perceptive, and motivational responses and dispositions. In the case of love, these relate lover to beloved in particular ways, including concern for the beloved’s well-being for the beloved’s own sake, defeasible dispositions to seek out and take pleasure in the beloved’s company, and various emotional dispositions. Central in all this is the fact that love is a form of affectionate attachment. The valuing orientation constitutive of love is thus not reducible to such things as volitional structures, 7 or a “generous attention” to the beloved. 8 These alone do not capture the dense complexity involved in the particular mode of valuing that is romantic and friendship love.

So conceived, it is a matter of character both who one loves as friend or romantic partner, and how one loves. One’s character is inevitably implicated here in one’s conscious commitments, unarticulated valuing tendencies, and patterns of emotional and desiring response concerning what one responds to as valuable, in what ways, and how. 9

That is the big picture. We turn now to the formal features of the reasons for love.

Sometimes there are requiring reasons for adopting a particular attitude. These are often defeasible; they are reasons which require that one adopt the attitude unless defeating conditions are met. In other cases, reasons for an attitude count in its favor in the sense of warranting its adoption, not requiring it. These are warranting reasons . Warrant is more than mere permissibility. To say that something is permissible is only to say it is not forbidden. Warranting reasons provide significantly more: they justify adopting the attitude. For example, being cut off in traffic warrants being irritated—the attitude is not merely permissible but also justified insofar as there are adequate reasons in its favor. But if I am not in fact irritated, no special justifying explanation is needed. The attitude was warranted, but not defeasibly required, so no defeating explanation for why I am not irritated is called for. 10

Reasons for romantic and friendship love, if there are such, are only warranting. People who think that, all else equal, other people are required to love them on account of their good traits (or anything else) have not yet learned something fundamental: however deeply craved, romantic and friendship love are not obligatory.

It is sometimes worried that if the reasons for love are merely warranting, then there can be a puzzling explanatory gap between the reasons and one’s response, since one might love one person but not another even though they share the same good traits. What makes the difference here need not be some further justifying reason, however. Rather, contingent psychological factors of preference, taste, and the like can do the needed work. Imagine a happy couple of many years. One of them says, “What first drew me to you was your sleek blond hair.” “It’s not blond anymore!”, the other fondly replies. Blond hair is no reason to love someone, and the first lover might never have treated it as if it were—for example, the question, “Should I continue to love?”, might never have occurred to her as her beloved’s hair grayed. Still, it might be true that she was initially drawn to her beloved’s hair and that this primed her to respond with certain kinds of interest as they got to know each other. Other matters of preference, taste, and the like can play similar roles more generally: they can help explain why we come to love some people and not others, without providing additional justifying reasons.

A final key structural feature of reasons for love on our account is agent-relativity . Compare: one person’s doing something nasty to another person is a reason for the latter person, but not just anyone, to resent the first. We have urged that reasons for love are similar: people’s good traits provide reasons for love for those people to whom those traits have been manifested in appropriate relational contexts. 11 On this view, people’s good qualities provide reasons for love only for those in appropriate relationships with them; it is the good qualities that provide the reasons for love, but they do so only for individuals in certain relational contexts and only for certain modes of loving. For instance, it is inappropriate for an adult to form, not just a crush, but a full-fledged romantic love-attachment on a complete stranger. It is likewise inappropriate to love one’s children’s friends in the way one’s children do. Agent-relativity provides a simple explanation for such points. 12

Talk of agent-relative warranting reasons for love presumes that love can be, in some sense, responsive to reasons. However, the point should not be exaggerated. There could be reasons for love even if most people do not love for good reasons. There might be reasons for love even if love is not under the control of the will or under the direct and immediate control of judgment. One can love a particular person even while admitting that one has no good reason to do so; this phenomenon no more shows that there are never reasons for love than admitting to inappropriate anger shows that there are never reasons for anger. The reasons view does not even require that love should be under the direct and immediate control of will or judgment. 13

Instead, only the most indirect forms of self-governance are implicated. Loving someone is a complex matter involving one’s emotional, desiderative, perceptive, motivational, and evaluative dispositions. Shifts in these complicated and interlocking dispositions are only gradually brought about, with much emotional and psychological work. In this respect, loving is no different from other aspects of character whose criticizability presupposes that they can be relevantly responsive to reasons. For instance, someone might not be able to feel generous on occasion even though she should. There may be no simple way for her to correct this failing. Still, it is perfectly unexceptionable to say that there is reason for her to be generous (to act generously out of feelings of generosity) on these occasions.

To say that a person’s attitude is responsive to the relevant reasons on a particular occasion is to offer a certain kind of psychological explanation. In her positive evaluative responses she treats those reasons as justifying. The relevant reasons thus explain her love in virtue of her positive evaluative responses to them. This explanatory role is not always played by good reasons for loving. Someone might treat something as if it were a justifying reason for love even though it is not. This is one way in which love can be defective. (Consider the person who loves someone precisely because she is rich.) 14

Something can play this sort of psychological role even if the lover does not avow it as a reason for which he loves. Think for instance about the man who in fact loves his spouse as a “trophy wife” despite what he says , quite sincerely, about the reasons for which he loves her. People’s self-attributions about these matters are often wrong.

It is one thing to attach emotional significance to something, another to treat it as a reason. Lovers sometimes attach great significance to aspects of the beloved’s body, belongings or small quirks. In Ian McEwan’s The Innocent , Leonard fears he will never see Maria again, and obsesses:

The blade of callus on her toe, the mole with two hairs, the miniscule dents in her lobes. If she went, what was he going to do with all these loving facts, these torturing details? 15

Leonard’s tormenting attention to such details does not show that he treats the callus as though it were a reason to love Marie. Rather his obsessive attention is an expression of his affection and attachment—such torturing details can serve as symbols of various kinds for the lover, particularly during times of grief and loss.

A lover can even respond to some feature as attractive or valuable, without treating it as a reason for loving. The earlier example of hair color is a case in point.

These psychological distinctions can show up in a number of ways. They may be manifested in what the person says (“I was drawn to your sleek hair, but of course that’s not why I love you”). They can also show up in the details of the lover’s interactions with the beloved and in the lover’s responses to change, insofar as both manifest what the lover values and how. For instance, the man who loves his spouse as a “trophy wife” will reveal this—regardless of what he avows—in their interactions and in his responses as she ages. By contrast, someone’s continuing to love without hesitation despite a spouse’s physical decline can show that even though she valued her beloved’s robust health, that was not a reason for which she loved.

Familiar forms of evaluation presuppose these distinctions. Imagine, for instance, that the man who loves his spouse as a “trophy wife” develops emotionally over time. In the beginning, he ignores his spouse’s generosity, trustworthiness, warmth, and wit. He gradually comes to appreciate these traits, but only in light of what they do for him . Finally, he comes to value his spouse for her own sake on account of these valuable traits. He might still appreciate her figure, but now that appreciation plays a different role in his psyche. We all recognize the first two stages as shallow and self-involved. He is not loving well. In the final stage, by contrast, he is appropriately responsive to the reasons which he had for loving her all along. Here again, how one loves, and why, is a significant manifestation of one’s character.

Precisely because the responses involved in loving bring into play everything that falls under the term “character,” it is a mistake to think that if there are reasons for love, then love must be a response on the part of something called “Reason”—where that is meant to contrast with something else such as one’s inclinations, passions, affects, and the like. Love is a deeply emotional response to its justifying grounds. And when someone’s love is an apt response to its justifying grounds, nothing is added by calling it “rational.” All that this will amount to is that it is an appropriate response to the beloved’s good traits in that relational context. 16

The view that there are reasons for love does entail that warranted love in friendship and romantic contexts involves appraisal—some form of evaluatively laden responsiveness to the good traits of the beloved. But this need not be understood as primarily cognitive. And we need not analyze this responsiveness as a two-component process involving (1) judgment about someone’s good qualities, followed by (2) appropriate affective attitudinal responses. The history of ethics is full of admonitions against such attempts to cleave apart judgments and affective attitudes in the practical sphere. Moreover, consider what is involved in feeling comfortable and happy in someone’s presence and lousy when apart. Such affective responses might be evaluatively laden and aptly regarded as manifestations of one’s character. But unless you hold a very particular view of what is involved in such responses, you do not have to say that they must be born of a prior judgment about the person’s qualities.

We turn now to questions of criticizability . If the reasons view is correct, then someone is open to criticism if she loves in the absence of good reasons or in ways that are not appropriate to the relevant reasons. 17 The issue here is not irrationality, narrowly construed, but rather a matter of character. However, the focus need not be on the person’s general tendencies. Just as we may judge, “you are being inappropriately angry here and now,” so too with love. Such failings need not be blameworthy. Someone may be no more to blame for falling in love with a person of wretched character than he may be for inappropriate feelings of anger. Blameworthiness is a further question.

A particularly important range of criticisms can arise when people love for bad reasons. In such cases people tend to love poorly. This is because people’s interactions with their beloveds will inevitably be shaped and colored by what they are treating as reasons for love. For instance, someone who loves her spouse for being “like” her imagined version of her parent will tend to interpret the spouse’s conduct in ways that fit that image, and will not react well—not lovingly—when it cannot be made to fit. Likewise, if one’s love is motivated by bad reasons, then one is apt to react poorly to change. Consider the situation of two young lovers whose good humor, kindness, honesty, and thoughtfulness all justify love, but who in fact love each other, unawares, in response to their youthful good looks. Unless their motivations change, this sets the stage for later inconstancy and other recognizable shortcomings in love. Thus even where love would be warranted, questions about the lover’s motivations speak directly to the lover’s character—they cut to the heart of the lover’s actual values.

2. Love as a Valuing Orientation

So far we have aimed to clarify the idea of reasons for love. It is much less contentious that there are reasons of love — reasons to do things for particular people, to be with them, and so forth, which we would not have if we did not love them. One prominent defender of the so-called “no-reasons view” emphasizes that love is a source of reasons, but suggests this as a reason for thinking that there cannot be reasons for love. 18 Defenders of the reasons view thus need to explain how the two sets of reasons might intelligibly be related. To do so, we propose to think of romantic and friendship love as particular ways of valuing people: they are what we will call “valuing orientations.” A valuing orientation involves (among other things) characteristic perceptive, affective, interactive, and motivational responses and dispositions. When warranted, it can be a source of further justifying reasons to think, feel, desire, and do various things and take up various dispositions. The idea of a valuing orientation can thus provide a unifying framework for thinking about the relation between the reasons for taking up a certain kind of response and the reasons to which it can give rise.

In this section we explore a particular model—valuing an activity (such as baking or gardening) as a “hobby”—in order to illuminate the complex relations among (1) the form of valuing at issue in romantic and friendship love, (2) the reasons that justify it, and (3) the reasons that it can generate. Four points are particularly relevant.

First, volitional matters are not all that is at issue. While valuing an activity as a hobby involves volitional structures such as dispositions to engage in the activity, dispositions concerning perceptual salience—for example—are involved as well. Even when it will not be instrumentally useful for engagement in the hobby, one will notice and pay interested attention to related aspects of the world in ways one otherwise would not. Moreover, one will enjoy engaging in the activity, be moved to share that enjoyment in various ways with like-minded people, and so forth. A wide variety of affective, desiderative, reflective, perceptive, and motivational dispositions are thus involved.

Second, these various elements are interpenetrating—each aspect (volitional, affective, motivational, perceptive) will be inflected in distinctive ways by others. Take, for instance, “enjoying the activity.” There are many ways in which one might enjoy an activity. To say what it is to enjoy an activity as a hobby , one must make reference to other aspects of valuing it as a hobby—for example, to the larger pattern of an ongoing meaningful enterprise, to the ways in which one will pay interested attention to related aspects of the world, and the like. Similar points apply to the volitional structures involved in valuing something as a hobby. One pursues the activity for its own sake and gives it a certain organizing position in relation to one’s overall pursuits, but in a very different manner from the way in which one pursues other ends—not relating to one’s hobbies—for their own sakes.

Third, valuing an activity as a hobby involves responding to reasons, though not requiring ones. If I do not take up some hobby for which I have at my ready disposal all that is required (time, supplies, money), no more is expected by way of explanation than “it’s not my thing.” This lack of interest is not merely a defeater for what would otherwise be requiring reasons. It would be bizarre to think that if it did not bore you, you would be required to take up stamp collecting. Yet reasons do play a role here nonetheless. When queried, anyone with a hobby will happily explain its valuable features, and will do so by citing what they regard as good reasons for engaging in it . Moreover, there are certain activities that do not make sense as hobbies precisely because we cannot see what value one could find in them. The features of the activity that make it valuable are what warrants engaging in it as a hobby.

Fourth, adopting something as a hobby gives one genuine (defeasible) reason for doing things it involves—but only if there is some value, intelligibly related to the activities involved in the hobby, that underwrites taking it up in the first place. Someone who adopts a “hobby” of torturing cats does not thereby acquire any reason to purchase torture implements. This is because there is no value, intelligibly related to the activities involved in this “hobby,” that underwrites taking it up in the first place.

The reasons one gains once one adopts a hobby are not reducible to the reasons for taking it on. For instance, there are many valuable aspects of quilt-making—the beautiful creations that result, the ways in which quilts can be a form of storytelling, the skills necessary, communal aspects of quilting—and these valuable features do count in favor of taking it on as a hobby. But by itself my recognition of those values does not give me sufficient reason to engage in the full complement of activities undertaken by the hobbyist quilter. If, on the other hand, I do take up quilting as a hobby, then that gives me sufficient reason for doing these things. Valuing an activity as a hobby is thus a source of reasons that go beyond the reasons one has when one merely recognizes the valuable features of an activity that make it worthwhile as a hobby. At the same time, these new reasons are intelligibly related to those valuable features of the activity.

Love—unlike a hobby—is an attitude toward a person, one which properly involves and issues in very different sorts of motivations, evaluations, and affective and emotional responses than those that are involved in a hobby. Nonetheless, hobbies provide an illuminating model for the form of valuing involved in love. Consider each of the four respects just highlighted.

First, there is more to loving than volitional structures. For example, affection and pleasure in the beloved’s company (all else equal) are also involved.

Second, the various aspects of loving as a mode of valuing are interpenetrating. They are inflected by each other in such a way that one cannot understand the distinctive form that any one of them should take unless one brings in others. Consider, for instance, the pursuit of the beloved’s well-being. A person who pursues another’s welfare for that person’s sake but with utterly cold affective indifference does not seek her welfare in the manner characteristic of love. Consider, likewise, the way in which we enjoy the company of our beloveds. I might enjoy the company of many people, but there is a very particular way in which we enjoy the company of those we love—as people toward whom we have affection, are attached, want to be with, and so on—and this relates to other affective aspects of love.

A third parallel concerns warranting reasons. As we have just urged (and have argued elsewhere), as with hobbies there are warranting reasons for romantic and friendship love. The model of a valuing orientation provided by valuing-as-a-hobby offers a larger context within which to place this claim.

The fourth parallel, then, is this. Like having a hobby, loving someone can be a source of new defeasible reasons, but only if one’s love is warranted. Insofar as I love people who are worth loving, I gain genuine new reasons to seek their company, express affection for them, pursue their welfare, and the like. By contrast, a spouse who is subjected to ongoing abuse does not have good reasons of love to want to be with her abuser or to have special concern for his well-being. 19 It will, of course, seem otherwise to the abused spouse insofar as she loves her abuser. But that is merely the normative shadow of the fact that she loves: insofar as one loves, one will both take there to be reasons for love and take one’s love to be a source of reasons. This is as it should be. Even if one loves someone who is not worth loving, one’s character as lover is open to criticism if one neither takes oneself to have, nor is moved by, reasons of love. 20

As in the case of hobbies, the reasons of love outstrip—and yet are recognizably related to—the reasons for love.

Some of these new reasons are state-based. For example, love may give me a new sufficient reason to do my beloved a favor. Some are relationally based—reasons that arise only in the context of a loving relationship. My reasons for marking a friend’s birthday, for instance, arise partly from the fact that he would be hurt if I, his friend, did not. These state-based and relationally based reasons can be merely warranting, but many are stronger. This is one way in which they outstrip the reasons for love.

The birthday case involves something on the order of a defeasible requiring reason or at least an apt normative expectation; we can see this in the ordinary expectation that if I forget a friend’s birthday, explanation and/or apology is owed. 21 Reasons of love can even be obligating. R. Jay Wallace, for example, highlights that quite apart from any debts of gratitude or reciprocity, we feel that we owe it to long-standing friends and life partners to be there for them even if they have the resources to handle difficult situations without our aid. 22 In such circumstances, it looks like there is no way to explain our sense of obligation except in terms of an obligation of love.

Of course, simply being in a relationship also gives us reasons and obligations—role-obligations of friendship or romantic partnership, say—which are not grounded in love. 23 But it is implausible to suppose that all the obligations and reasons we have in the context of reciprocal loving relationships can be accounted for in such terms. Wallace’s is one such example, marking a birthday is another, as are visiting friends in hospital, keeping in touch, and being constant in our love. These are the sorts of things which, in the context of a loving relationship, we are generally expected to do out of love . If we find that a friend did such things out of a sense of duty to the relationship rather than out of love, we are usually hurt or disappointed. This provides further reason to suppose that the obligations at issue are obligations of love, for the presumption at issue in such expectations is that love not only justifies these actions, but that it can motivate them as well. 24

As in the case of hobbies, there is an intelligible relation here between the reasons that warrant the valuing orientation, on the one hand, and the reasons it generates, on the other. There is a straightforward fit, along several dimensions, between (1) people’s manifesting (in their interactions with you) good traits that make them well suited for intimate relationships and (2) the various dispositions and activities involved in loving them well (desiring their company, having special concern for their welfare, and the like, all in the ways that are involved in love). After all, the person is manifesting—in interaction with you—traits that make the person well suited for an intimate relationship with you, and you are engaging well in an intimate relationship with him or her. The reasons for love thus mesh in obvious ways with what is involved in loving well.

In fact, at least three points are involved here.

First, a point about normative intelligibility. It makes all the sense in the world to enjoy the company of, feel affectionate toward, seek to be around, and disinterestedly seek the welfare of people who are kind, considerate, loyal, constant, warm, and so on in their interactions with us. Those are exactly the sorts of people whose welfare it is good and enjoyable to seek in the ways involved in love and who are good and enjoyable to be around in loving relationships. It would be perverse to want to be around someone who is primarily cold, cruel, and capricious in his interactions with you, to disinterestedly seek his welfare, and the like, in the ways that are involved in friendship and romantic love.

Second, a point about normative coherence. We have proposed that love is a way of valuing people on account of the good character traits that they manifest in their interactions with us. If I really value the traits that make people well suited for intimate relationships, then I should value such traits in myself as well. This means that if I love someone, I should aim to manifest such traits in my interactions with that person: I should aim to love well. There is thus a structural fit between the responses involved in loving well and the reasons for love.

Finally, a point about the interpersonal normative structure. In the case in which you love well, you will treat your beloved with kindness, warmth, concern for your beloved’s well-being for your beloved’s own sake, constancy in your feelings and actions toward your beloved, and the like. This means that you will interact in ways that provide your beloved with reasons to love you. There is thus a further normative fit between the reasons for loving and the reasons of love; loving well will normatively reinforce reciprocal love.

In sum, then, understanding love as a valuing orientation reveals a particularly nice fit between the reasons for love and the ways of interacting with people and orienting ourselves toward them that constitute loving them well. The reasons for love, the reasons of love, and the various desiderative, affective, motivational, perceptual, evaluative, and reflective dispositions that make up this valuing orientation—all taken together—constitute a single, cohesive system. Any debate about reasons for love must take place within a grasp of this sort of larger framework.

3. You and No Other

The view that people’s good qualities are reasons for love has been widely rejected in the literature. Recall Setiya’s summary of typical objections. To that list—one that includes problems of “universality,” “promiscuity,” “trading up,” and “inconstancy”—we might also add the now-common complaint that so-called quality views make loving an exact duplicate in place of one’s beloved either permissible or required. 25 All these objections charge in one way or another that no version of the quality view can connect us in the right way to the particular people we love. However, our view of love as a valuing orientation obviates these objections.

We begin with concerns about “universality” and “promiscuity.”

It is a mistake to think that if people’s good traits are reasons for love, then one is required to love everyone with the same good traits or that everyone is required to love a given person on account of his good traits. First, on our account the relevant reasons are agent-relative, generated in particular relational contexts. One has reason to love only those with whom one is in an appropriate relationship, not just anyone with the relevant good qualities. 26 Moreover, if (as discussed in section 1 ) the reasons for love are warranting—not requiring—then loving selectively is perfectly unexceptionable. 27 So much for worries about “promiscuity” and “universality.” 28

Precisely because our view regards the reasons for love as warranting reasons, it also does not require one to “trade up” by switching one’s love to someone with superior qualities. Nor does our view entail that it is irrational not to prefer a person with superior qualities. If the other person is good enough, loving them is warranted, and there is no ground for criticism if you simply do not “click” with the superior person.

But worries about substitution and “trading up” can take another form. If people’s nonunique good qualities are only warranting reasons for loving them, why would it be objectionable to cease loving one person and begin loving an identical substitute (or someone relevantly better)?

This question concerns the reasons for constancy. One’s love for the first person will not be deficient merely insofar as one also comes to love someone else, since love does not inherently demand exclusivity. 29 The crucial question is thus why it would be objectionable to stop loving the first person and begin loving a substitute instead.

There are many reasons for constancy, and different reasons may be applicable in different cases. But it is important not to overstate the case. Ongoing abuse by a spouse is an excellent reason to cease loving. So the “trading up” objection is no objection at all, if we are talking about a case in which a badly abused spouse ceases to love the abuser and comes to love a much kinder, more caring, nonabusive person.

One family of considerations relevant to constancy arises from the fact that love is a mode of valuing involving an affectionate attachment to a specific individual. Someone who is attached to a particular person in this way has reason to object to and grieve that person’s loss. The prospect of ceasing to love is consequently horrible, even if one is offered an appealing replacement. Moreover, given that love is a mode of valuing, its attachments are central expressions of one’s values and thereby provide a key structuring aspect of one’s motivational and affective life. To give all this up constitutes a significant loss, and it is an aspect of the fact that this is a form of valuing that insofar as one does currently value another individual in this way, one will reasonably resist ceasing to do so unless one discovers that the other person was never worth valuing in the first place. Your love thus militates against ceasing loving, accepting a substitute, and so forth, and to the extent that one’s love is justified, these pressures constitute genuine, normative reasons to continue to love. If one does not feel these sorts of pain, one has to that extent already ceased to love or never fully loved. People ready to do such things with equanimity thereby demonstrate a deficiency—shallowness—in their love.

Such people are also commonly poised to commit very distinctive interpersonal harms. For instance, the fact that someone who is in a reciprocal love relationship with you would be badly hurt if you “traded up” is itself a relational reason not to do so. Moreover, your beloved has a reasonable expectation not to be so harmed. Insofar as you love the person, these are reasons to which you should be responsive (out of love), as a condition of loving well. If someone in a successful reciprocal love relationship replaces the one she loves or “trades up,” she thereby fails to be properly responsive in her emotional life to reasons that she has in virtue of her love. In a great many cases, there are thus strong relationally based reasons of love for constancy.

These points hold even if one’s beloved’s character has changed radically for the worse. 30 This is because the reasons that warrant continuing to love may be different than the reasons that warranted beginning to do so. However, the relational considerations must now be balanced in one’s emotional life against the sometimes very strong reasons one has to cease loving (say, if one’s spouse has become abusive). Moreover, the reasons for continuing to love may be different under this scenario—for instance, they may be partly constituted by a reasonable hope that the person will change for the better, even if this is never in itself a ground for coming to love. (Of course, while one sometimes has most reason to continue loving someone whose character has changed radically for the worse, this is not always so, though clear vision is often difficult in these circumstances.)

It might be worried that considerations about harm, hope for change, and the like are simply the wrong way of justifying constancy in love. For instance, consider cases in which people lose their good qualities as a result of diseases such as Alzheimer’s:

Even when such harm (as e.g. that involved in withdrawing love) would result, this reply seems to miss the problem: the change in quality shouldn’t present even a prima facie reason to change the attitude, and so there should be no need to even consider the badness of such harms. 31

However, the changes involved in Alzheimer’s don’t provide reason to cease loving, on our view. It is a mistake to think that if people’s good character traits are reasons for coming to love them, then the loss of those traits—irrespective of, for instance, how it comes about—must be reason for ceasing to love. Whether one has any reason to cease loving someone who one has warrantedly come to love is its own difficult normative question, and the answer depends on the details of the case.

The Alzheimer’s case is distinctive in several relevant respects. First, since our view understands romantic love as a reactive attitude, it is normatively relevant that the changes involved in Alzheimer’s are not a shift from good character to bad character. Rather, the Alzheimer’s patient is in the process of losing the capacities that enable evaluation in such terms at all. For this reason, too, it is sometimes appropriate for those who love an Alzheimer’s patient as romantic partner not to cease loving, but to shift to something new: a form of love that is more like love for a young child. 32 Moreover, the losses endured by romantic partners of Alzheimer’s patients during its “long goodbye” are heartrending; it is surely okay that when dealing with the grief-ridden realities of daily caretaking, loss of companionship, and the partner’s vanishing adult capacities, many people do ask themselves whether and why they should continue to love. Considerations about what the loss of your love would do to your partner can provide a good answer (even if your partner no longer recognizes you). To think such questions should never even arise is to maintain a harmful fantasy of what love should be in such awful contexts.

In sum, there are three points to bear in mind when thinking about constancy in love. First, given that loving can be a source of reasons one did not antecedently have, it is a mistake to look only to the reasons for love. Reasons of love may be centrally relevant. Second, insofar as the case is one in which there were, but are no longer, warranting reasons for reactive love, it will matter a great deal why that is the case. Third, some reasons for continuing to love will not be present in every case, and they will not always be overriding, but that too is exactly what we should expect, given the range of possible cases.

The “trading up” and “constancy” objections (answered earlier) concern normative issues about what we should think, feel, and do when we love. But it has also been suggested that the quality view cannot make sense of a basic structural feature of love. If the reasons for love appeal to repeatable features instantiated by multiple people, how does that one particular person get picked out as the object of love? 33

One version of this worry trades on mistaken assumptions about the structure of person-focused attitudes. If love is justified by a person’s features, one might suppose that it is really those features that are the object of one’s love, not the person. 34 This worry loses track of a familiar distinction between the object of an attitude—what the attitude is directed toward —and its grounds. 35 Many attitudes are directed toward people on account of their traits or behavior; in each case, considerations about the person make it appropriate to take that attitude toward that person. Just as I can be proud of my young child on account of his accomplishments, I can love someone for what he is like.

Alternatively, it is sometimes wondered how that particular person gets picked out if the reasons for love are qualities that are instantiated by many people. 36 But there is no mystery here. The relevant justifying consideration is the fact that that particular person has those qualities . This consideration takes you directly to that particular person and picks him out as an appropriate object of the attitude even if other people have identical traits. That someone has behaved cruelly justifies adopting certain attitudes toward him in particular , regardless of whether other people have behaved cruelly as well. Likewise, if a certain person has certain lovable (love-worthy) qualities, this unproblematically supports loving that particular person even if those qualities are not unique to him.

A further challenge in this territory concerns the fact that love involves regarding the beloved as irreplaceable—as an object of affection and concern for which no substitute will do. One would feel a terrible loss if one’s beloved were replaced by someone else, no matter who. How can the quality view explain, or at least be squared with, this fact? 37

The answer to this challenge lies in three considerations.

First, attitudes that are directed toward particular individuals (in the sense of taking a particular person as their object) involve regarding the person as irreplaceable in ways determined by, and relevant to, that particular attitude. Suppose I am grateful to Rebecca for helping me move. Even if George also helped me move, and did so in precisely the same way as Rebecca, he cannot acceptably be “substituted” for Rebecca as the object of my gratitude toward Rebecca. My gratitude to Rebecca is directed toward her , and it calls for certain further reactions and actions toward her . Analogous points apply to love. If I love someone on account of his good character, it will not be an adequate expression of my love for that person if the expression is knowingly directed toward someone else who has the same good traits.

Second, to the extent that the question of “irreplaceability” goes beyond the above considerations, it concerns the depth and nature of the attachment involved in love. Here, the structuring role love plays in one’s valuing life (as discussed in section 2 ) is particularly important. Still, a justificatory question might be raised. Loving someone involves such things as the following: all else equal, one will (1) take pleasure in that person’s company and experience absence as a deprivation; (2) grieve or otherwise suffer if deprived of that person’s presence for long enough; (3) focus on that person’s well-being, taking it as an end to be pursued for their sake, and feel sad if one cannot act in its pursuit; (4) feel devastated by the person’s death or loss. In vulnerabilities such as these we see the particular ways in which the beloved is experienced as irreplaceable. How can the good qualities of the beloved—qualities which can be had by other people– justify taking an attitude toward the beloved that involves these responses?

The conception of love defended in section 2 provides an answer. On our view, warranted love is an appropriate valuing response to genuine value. It is itself a good and valuable thing. This point equally applies to the aspects of love that play a role in “irreplaceability.” For one, it is good and valuable to become deeply attached to good people who have manifested their goodness toward you in their interactions with you, to want to be around them and to pursue their well-being for their own sakes. But for creatures like us, it is precisely the depth of this attachment that renders us vulnerable to the forms of disappointment, grief, and loss mentioned. You cannot have that good, valuable response to others without the vulnerabilities that follow in its wake. Moreover, we should not want to wish these vulnerabilities away. They bring further goods into being. There are goods that are not available to someone who does not love, goods that are connected with the phenomena of irreplaceability. Someone who does not miss his beloved at all will—for that very reason—be at a disadvantage in the creation and maintenance of successful long-term relationships. And warranted mutual love between friends and romantic lovers—involving all of the phenomena of irreplaceability—is both a good itself and gives rise to further goods. In these ways, a view that regards people’s good traits as warranting reasons for love can readily explain how the reasons for love can warrant an attitude that involves treating another person as irreplaceable in precisely the ways that love does.

Finally, the reasons of love play their own role here too. As we discussed, in many cases in which one loves, one thereby has reason neither to cease loving nor to switch whom one loves. If one loves well then one’s affective responses will track those reasons, making one anything but indifferent to the replacement of one’s beloved.

We turn now to one last objection. Setiya writes, “it is not irrational to love my wife with a constancy” that survives even the discovery that all her seeming admirable qualities “were never real” because “[she] never acted from true kindness, always with an ulterior motive; [her] ‘jokes’ were unintentional; my memories are false”. 38 However, since relational considerations can generate reasons to continue or cease loving, we need to know more: in what ways is he mistaken about his spouse, and why? Suppose his spouse intentionally misled him in order to gain his trust and subject him to serious, ongoing harm. Suppose that after being discovered she remains unrepentant and undeterred. Let the pattern continue unabated—at some point in this sordid affair something will have gone badly wrong if he regards his continued love as unproblematic. There are relevant reasons to which he is not responding.

This is not only a matter of prudential reasons to leave the relationship. Imagine that several years after leaving the relationship and gaining freedom from the profound mistreatment, he continues to love her without any sense that his ongoing affectionate feelings, vulnerability, and special concern are problematic. At some point, he has overriding reason to move on—not just in his relationships but in his loving. Indeed, the two are not cleanly separable. His reasons for extricating himself extend beyond his interactions with her to include the central place she has in his affective and valuing life. And the point is not merely that he is harming himself. When properly responsive to the relevant reasons, love is a valuable form of valuing. This is anything but.

4. Concluding Thoughts

We have urged that the debates over whether there are reasons for love need to be recontextualized. The question cannot be adequately considered apart from a larger picture of what love is, what it means to say that there are reasons for love, and the relationships among what it is to love, the reasons for love, and the reasons to which love gives rise.

We have argued that romantic and friendship love should be seen as a particular mode of valuing, and that our account of the reasons for love not only fits with but also illuminates an account of loving so understood. Moreover, on this picture, love is a valuable mode of valuing when justified and engaged in well, one which consequently gives rise to genuine reasons of love, including very strong reasons for constancy in love and for refusing to substitute or “trade up.”

We close with three thoughts.

The first concerns the reasons love gives us for constancy and the like. There can be genuine reasons of love only because love can be a valuable mode of valuing. And it is a central part of what makes friendship and romantic love valuable modes of valuing that they are fitting responses to values—to the reasons given by the loved one’s good character. The objectors thus have it backward: rather than straining against our reasons for constancy and for refusing to “trade up” or accept doppelgängers, the quality view can help explain why we have these sorts of genuine reasons of love at all.

Second, any account that holds there are reasons for love must explain why loving, given the kind of thing that it is, makes sense as a response to the specified reasons. This is required not only in order to make loving—as a whole—intelligible and recognizable but also in order to ground the claim that love can be a valuable mode of valuing and a genuine source of further reasons. It is an open question whether alternative accounts that locate the reasons for love in an agent’s capacity for reason, or in relational considerations that make no necessary reference to an agent’s good character, can satisfy this desideratum.

“No-reasons” accounts of love face a similar challenge. Such accounts rightly hold that there is such a thing as loving well or loving poorly. (What otherwise would be the objection to “trading up,” substituting, inconstancy?) But this leaves proponents of the “no reasons” view with some explaining to do. Whether one has reason to remain constant in one’s love depends in part on what one’s beloved is like. Why would that be, if—as the no-reasons view holds—considerations about the beloved’s good traits are normatively irrelevant to the appropriateness of love?

Finally, we highlighted one aspect of loving that has been largely neglected in the literature to date: the significant extent and many respects in which love in friendship and romantic contexts is a matter of character. This form of love—we have urged—is an appropriate response to certain laudable character traits as reasons for love. One’s relative responsiveness to these reasons is a matter of character—a responsiveness that has to do with a complex of valuing, perceptive, affective, desiderative, and motivational dispositions. One’s relative responsiveness to the reasons of love—in general, or in situ—is likewise evaluable primarily in character terms. And so how well one loves, and how well one’s loving relationships go, is also a matter of character. Small wonder that loving should in everyday life seem so important to our sense of who we are as individuals. It seems that way because it is. 39

Abramson, Kate , and Adam Leite . “ Love as a Reactive Emotion. ” Philosophical Quarterly 61 ( 2011 ): 673–699

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Smith, Angela. “ Responsibility for Attitudes: Activity and Passivity in Mental Life. ” Ethics 115, no. 2 ( 2005 ): 236–271.

Smuts, Aaron. “ Normative Reasons for Love Part II. ” Philosophy Compass 9, no. 8 ( 2014 ): 518–526.

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Vlastos, Gregory. “The Individual as Object of Love in Plato.” In Vlastos , Platonic Studies. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1973 , 3–34.

1 Harry Frankfurt , The Reasons of Love (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2004) .

2 David Velleman , “Love as a Moral Emotion,” Ethics 109 (1999): 338–374 .

3 Niko Kolodny , “Love as Valuing a Relationship,” Philosophical Review 112 (2003): 135–189 .

4 Kieran Setiya , “Love and The Value of a Life,” Philosophical Review 123, no. 3 (2014): 251–280, p. 255 .

5 P. F. Strawson , “Freedom and Resentment,” Proceedings of the British Academy , 48 (1962): 1–25, also now available as open source text at http://users.ox.ac.uk/~ball0888/oxfordopen/resentment.htm .

Abramson and Leite, “Love as a Reactive Emotion.”

Frankfurt, The Reasons of Love .

Jollimore, Love’s Vision .

9 Some (see, e.g., Benjamin Bagley , “Loving Someone in Particular”, Ethics 125, no. 2 [2015]: 477–507, p. 490 and n.) talk as though one’s character could be entirely separable from one’s values. With Aristotle and Hume, we hold instead that: (1) one cannot adequately specify a person’s character traits without making reference to her values (a courageous person does what she sees as worthwhile in the face of fear); and (2) The content of one’s character informs one’s values (because she is generous, a generous person values things the ungenerous person does not).

10 On warranting reasons and the reactive attitudes, see also Lucy Allais , “Freedom and Forgiveness”, in David Shoemaker and Neal Tognazzini , eds., Oxford Studies in Agency and Responsibility , vol. 2, ch. 3, Oxford: Oxford University Press (2014): 33-63 .

The common sorting of “reasons-views” into “quality views” and “relationship views” obscures the possibility of a view with this structure.

13 That is, love need not be a “judgment-sensitive attitude” in T. M. Scanlon’s sense (see chapter 1 in What We Owe to Each Other [Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1998] ).

The difficult question, how best to explain what it is to treat something as a reason, is beyond the scope of this chapter. It arises for any account—of action or of any attitude whatsoever—that uses the notion of reasons.

15 The Innocent (London: Picador, 1990), 112 , cited in Rae Langton , “Projected Love,” in Understanding Love: Philosophy, Film and Fiction , ed. Susan Wolf and Christopher Grau (Cambridge: Oxford University Press, 2013): 141–162 .

It is consequently unhelpful to characterize the reasons view as “the picture of love as a rational response to reasons” ( Setiya, “Love and The Value of a Life,” 255).

The question here is whether the person is worthy of criticism. It is another matter whether it is appropriate to offer criticism in situ.

See, for example, Frankfurt, The Reasons of Love , 38–40.

She might have reasons of prudence.

This point is a generalization of the phenomenon at issue in familiar wide-scope requirements on rationality—here applied not to reasoning, but to issues of value and character.

21 Angela Smith , “Responsibility for Attitudes: Activity and Passivity in Mental Life,” Ethics 115, no. 2 (2005): 236–271, p. 236 .

22 R. Jay Wallace , “Duties of Love,” Aristotelian Society Supplementary Volume 86, no. 1 (2012): 175–198, p. 186 .

Wallace, “Duties of Love,” 177–180.

See also Wallace, “Duties of Love,” 191–192.

25 See Kolodny, “Love as Valuing a Relationship,” 140–141; Aaron Smuts , “Normative Reasons for Love Part II”, Philosophy Compass 9, no. 8 (2014): 518–526, p. 520 .

Abramson and Leite, “Love as a Reactive Emotion” ; Jollimore, Love’s Vision , 93–94, 123–134.

Setiya recognizes that any view which holds that a person’s good qualities provide (in his terms) “noninsistent” rather than “insistent” reasons can, for that very reason, answer objections concerning universality, promiscuity, and trading up. He contends, however, that “quality views” cannot answer constancy objections ( Setiya, “Love and The Value of a Life,” 255–256). Our view can, as we explain later.

Normative demands for romantic exclusivity are properly in place in some romantic relationships—namely, those in which romantic exclusivity is a consensual aspect of the normative expectations of that relationship for those in that relationship, but they cannot be generalized to friendship or romantic love as such.

Thanks to David Sussman for pressing this question.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1576716/Judge-lost-husband-to-Alzheimers-and-love.html .

Thanks to Edward Harcourt for pressing this question.

34 For discussion, see Gregory Vlastos , “The Individual as Object of Love in Plato,” in Vlastos , Platonic Studies (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1973), 3–34 .

35 Kolodny, “Love as Valuing a Relationship,” 154; David Hume , A Treatise of Human Nature [1739–40], ed. Selby-Bigge and Nidditch (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1978), T 2.2.1.1–8 .

Smuts, “Normative Reasons for Love Part II,” 522.

37 For discussion see Joseph Raz , From Normativity to Responsibility (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011) ; Christopher Grau , “Irreplaceability and Unique Value,” Philosophical Topics 32, no. 1–2 (2004): 111–129 .

38 Kieran Setiya , “Love and The Value of a Life,” Philosophical Review 123, no. 3 (2014): 251–280, at 257 .

We especially thank Lorenzo Greco, Edward Harcourt, Kirk Ludwig, David Sussman, and the editors for detailed comments. For helpful conversations we thank Lucy Allais, Gary Ebbs, Richard Holton, Rae Langton, and the members of the December 2016 Cambridge philosophy seminar.

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Bacon illustrates the example of Marcus Antonius, a member of Roman royalty who was given a chance to rule over 1/3rd of the empire, and Appius Claudius, the second member of royalty who was given the other 1/3rd of empire, to explain the destructing effects of love. The former was the man of ambition and power, however, amorous, impulsive, and restrained. He had little or no control over his heart and wandered in pursuit of love and lust. While Claudius was a sober, sage and wise man of great wisdom. He never brought himself disgrace while rushing towards quixotic desire.

Bacon quotes the Greek philosopher Epicurus who promoted self-control, self-discipline, and restraint in one’s life. He warned his followers against chasing the worldly desires and says that “we are sufficient for one another”. By this, he conveys a message that one must live his life fully, without indulging into conflicts with others. One should not avenge other and must restrain himself from other such misdeeds. He expresses his disproval for a man of great worth who bowed in front of a woman he loves and makes themselves small and miserable.

Bacon, furthermore, talks about the unfettered love that destroys the man. He says that such love devalues the man and make them insignificant in front of others. Moreover, Bacon argues about romantic poetry in which the writer exaggerates the beauty of his beloved unnecessary. To him, such exaggeration is only suitable for romance and writing; they are not applicable in practical life. A paramour who detriments his discriminating influence to transfer flattering words to his woman evidently negotiates with his intellect, and judging power. A proud man will never make his beloved to rule over him by pouring sugarcoated words on her. For Bacon, a wise man must not love as it is impossible to be wise and to love at the same time.

In an unrequited love, the praises and compliment of a man for his beloved woman appear to be a weakness of his character. Moreover, when her woman doesn’t feel responding the paramour, she treats his love as a pitiable weakness of his character. The love of man can result in two things: either the woman will respond to him in the same way or will create an inward feeling of insignificant in a woman for the man. So, Bacon warns, the man before falling in love should understand one thing that it doesn’t harm anything but man’s self-esteem.

Those who see the world as nothing but a place to fulfill their carnal desires destroy themselves. They losses both affluence and wisdom in search or sexual pleasures in the world. Bacon argues that such passions are overwhelmed in the period of prosperity than of adversity. Carnal pleasures get accentuated in the time of both happiness and distress and can be called as “child of folly”. However, these sensual pleasure when are uncontrolled can lead to the destruction of business, wealth, and health.

The army men seem to have a special attraction for love as they have for the wine. Bacon discusses the men’s nature and argues that men have a special inclination towards love for other. He makes his love universal by expanding it towards everyone, no matter such love gentle and kind and people who have some spiritual and religious belonging have this kind of love. In the end, Bacon says that the love that arises from marriage is the root cause of mankind’s creation, while love in friendship makes it perfect but lust corrupts it and embarrass it.

Of Love by Francis Bacon Literary Analysis

The essay “Of Love” is an argumentative essay written by Sir Francis Bacon. Bacon in this essay argues about the various ills of falling in love. He particularly argues about the carnal pleasures and its consequences.

Sir Francis Bacon is a well-known English Essayist and philosopher. He devoted himself to writing along with scientific work and wrote sixty essays. This essay, Of Love, is regarding the love. Love, in today’s world, have influenced a large number of people. The objective of Bacon in this essay is to demonstrate the effect of love on all kinds of people. No matter who you are, you will fall in love with somebody and this love will definitely have an effect on you, and sometimes love makes one do senseless things.

Bacon then talks about the sensual love that drains one’s intelligence. For some people, love is nothing but a source of Carnal pleasure. However, such love if lasted long has hard consequences.

Bacon then talks about the noble and kind love the spiritual people possess. They don’t love a single person or group of people but the entire universe. They are more inclined towards every creation in the universe. Another kind of noble love that Bacon argues about is the love between husband and wife. This love is further dignified with the love of friends.

Conciseness, straightforwardness, wittiness, and compact opinions are the merits that Bacon’s essay cover. The methodical way of inscription makes his essay logical and rational. The subject matter that he argues about is taken from real life experiences and is a hot topic of discussion in every time. The readers find his essay more welcoming and pleasurable. The use of the Latin proverb in his essay shows his high knowledge regarding the Latin language, and it also adds colors to his writing.

My Personal Values in Life

Categories: Values of Life

About this sample

Words: 773 |

Published: Jan 31, 2024

Words: 773 | Pages: 2 | 4 min read

Introduction, body paragraph 1: personal value 1, body paragraph 2: personal value 2, body paragraph 3: personal value 3, counterargument.

Adler, M. J. (2000). The four dimensions of philosophy: Metaphysical, moral, objective, categorical. Routledge.
Miller, W. R., & Thoresen, C. E. (2003). Spirituality, religion, and health: An emerging research field. American Psychologist, 58(1), 24-35.
Peterson, C., & Seligman, M. E. (2004). Character strengths and virtues: A handbook and classification. Oxford University Press.

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Essays About Values: 5 Essay Examples Plus 10 Prompts

Similar to how our values guide us, let this guide with essays about values and writing prompts help you write your essay.

Values are the core principles that guide the actions we take and the choices we make. They are the cornerstones of our identity. On a community or organizational level, values are the moral code that every member must embrace to live harmoniously and work together towards shared goals.

We acquire our values from different sources such as parents, mentors, friends, cultures, and experiences. All of these build on one another — some rejected as we see fit — for us to form our perception of our values and what will lead us to a happy and fulfilled life.

5 Essay Examples

1. what today’s classrooms can learn from ancient cultures by linda flanagan, 2. stand out to your hiring panel with a personal value statement by maggie wooll, 3. make your values mean something by patrick m. lencioni, 4. how greed outstripped need by beth azar, 5. a shift in american family values is fueling estrangement by joshua coleman, 1. my core values, 2. how my upbringing shaped my values, 3. values of today’s youth, 4. values of a good friend, 5. an experience that shaped your values, 6. remembering our values when innovating, 7. important values of school culture, 8. books that influenced your values, 9. religious faith and moral values, 10. schwartz’s theory of basic values.

“Connectedness is another core value among Maya families, and teachers seek to cultivate it… While many American teachers also value relationships with their students, that effort is undermined by the competitive environment seen in many Western classrooms.”

Ancient communities keep their traditions and values of a hands-off approach to raising their kids. They also preserve their hunter-gatherer mindsets and others that help their kids gain patience, initiative, a sense of connectedness, and other qualities that make a helpful child.

“How do you align with the company’s mission and add to its culture? Because it contains such vital information, your personal value statement should stand out on your resume or in your application package.”

Want to rise above other candidates in the jobs market? Then always highlight your value statement. A personal value statement should be short but still, capture the aspirations and values of the company. The essay provides an example of a captivating value statement and tips for crafting one.

“Values can set a company apart from the competition by clarifying its identity and serving as a rallying point for employees. But coming up with strong values—and sticking to them—requires real guts.”

Along with the mission and vision, clear values should dictate a company’s strategic goals. However, several CEOs still needed help to grasp organizational values fully. The essay offers a direction in setting these values and impresses on readers the necessity to preserve them at all costs.

“‘He compared the values held by people in countries with more competitive forms of capitalism with the values of folks in countries that have a more cooperative style of capitalism… These countries rely more on strategic cooperation… rather than relying mostly on free-market competition as the United States does.”

The form of capitalism we have created today has shaped our high value for material happiness. In this process, psychologists said we have allowed our moral and ethical values to drift away from us for greed to take over. You can also check out these essays about utopia .

“From the adult child’s perspective, there might be much to gain from an estrangement: the liberation from those perceived as hurtful or oppressive, the claiming of authority in a relationship, and the sense of control over which people to keep in one’s life. For the mother or father, there is little benefit when their child cuts off contact.”

It is most challenging when the bonds between parent and child weaken in later years. Psychologists have been navigating this problem among modern families, which is not an easy conflict to resolve. It requires both parties to give their best in humbling themselves and understanding their loved ones, no matter how divergent their values are.

10 Writing Prompts On Essays About Values

For this topic prompt, contemplate your non-negotiable core values and why you strive to observe them at all costs. For example, you might value honesty and integrity above all else. Expound on why cultivating fundamental values leads to a happy and meaningful life. Finally, ponder other values you would like to gain for your future self. Write down how you have been practicing to adopt these aspired values.

Essays About Values: How my upbringing shaped my values

Many of our values may have been instilled in us during childhood. This essay discusses the essential values you gained from your parents or teachers while growing up. Expound on their importance in helping you flourish in your adult years. Then, offer recommendations on what households, schools, or communities can do to ensure that more young people adopt these values.

Is today’s youth lacking essential values, or is there simply a shift in what values generations uphold? Strive to answer this and write down the healthy values that are emerging and dying. Then think of ways society can preserve healthy values while doing away with bad ones. Of course, this change will always start at home, so also encourage parents, as role models, to be mindful of their words, actions and behavior.

The greatest gift in life is friendship. In this essay, enumerate the top values a friend should have. You may use your best friend as an example. Then, cite the best traits your best friend has that have influenced you to be a better version of yourself. Finally, expound on how these values can effectively sustain a healthy friendship in the long term.

We all have that one defining experience that has forever changed how we see life and the values we hold dear. Describe yours through storytelling with the help of our storytelling guide . This experience may involve a decision, a conversation you had with someone, or a speech you heard at an event.

With today’s innovation, scientists can make positive changes happen. But can we truly exercise our values when we fiddle with new technologies whose full extent of positive and adverse effects we do not yet understand such as AI? Contemplate this question and look into existing regulations on how we curb the creation or use of technologies that go against our values. Finally, assess these rules’ effectiveness and other options society has.

Essays About Values: Important values of school culture

Highlight a school’s role in honing a person’s values. Then, look into the different aspects of your school’s culture. Identify which best practices distinct in your school are helping students develop their values. You could consider whether your teachers exhibit themselves as admirable role models or specific parts of the curriculum that help you build good character.

In this essay, recommend your readers to pick up your favorite books, particularly those that served as pathways to enlightening insights and values. To start, provide a summary of the book’s story. It would be better if you could do so without revealing too much to avoid spoiling your readers’ experience. Then, elaborate on how you have applied the values you learned from the book.

For many, religious faith is the underlying reason for their values. For this prompt, explore further the inextricable links between religion and values. If you identify with a certain religion, share your thoughts on the values your sector subscribes to. You can also tread the more controversial path on the conflicts of religious values with socially accepted beliefs or practices, such as abortion.

Dive deeper into the ten universal values that social psychologist Shalom Schwartz came up with: power, achievement, hedonism, stimulation, self-direction, universalism, benevolence, tradition, conformity, and security. Look into their connections and conflicts against each other. Then, pick your favorite value and explain how you relate to it the most. Also, find if value conflicts within you, as theorized by Schwartz.

Make sure to check out our round-up of the best essay checkers . If you want to use the latest grammar software, read our guide on using an AI grammar checker .

Yna Lim is a communications specialist currently focused on policy advocacy. In her eight years of writing, she has been exposed to a variety of topics, including cryptocurrency, web hosting, agriculture, marketing, intellectual property, data privacy and international trade. A former journalist in one of the top business papers in the Philippines, Yna is currently pursuing her master's degree in economics and business.

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Short Essay on Value of Life [100, 200, 400 Words] With PDF

In this session, you are going to learn how you can write short essays on the topic of ‘Value of Life.’ There will be three different sets of essays in this session covering different word limits.

Feature image of Short Essay on Value of Life

Short Essay on Value of Life in 100 Words

If anything that God has given us in this world is important, then nothing is as precious as the life on earth. Without life, one would turn as insignificant as any neuter being—all living beings on earth manifest life in several ways. From the microscopic algae to the gigantic beasts and humans, life’s pulse carries us forward. Life helps to enjoy the earth and all its resources.

Through it, we experience both pain and pleasure and become stronger. Human life is the most diverse of all life forms on earth since it has knowledge of birth and death. Hence it meticulously streamlines life into a better form to give it a fruitful conclusion. Life on earth exists to deliver love, care, compassion, help, assistance, and bonding.

Short Essay on Value of Life in 200 Words

Having a life is one of the most precious instruments on earth. It is a proverb often said that life is what we make out of it. Indeed life is not just breathing air and eating, drinking, excreting, and sleeping. It is much more than that which makes life’s mysteries often unfathomable. Without the essence of life, a body is as insignificant as any dead being. In fact, life itself manifests in several forms on earth.

Life has a very special meaning that all of us must affirm to ourselves. Life is not just only about getting a good education, acquiring a good job, having a great position in society. Life also encompasses several other aspects like enjoying even the little gift which God gives us.

Life constitutes lots of people like our family, friends, teachers, neighbours, and also our pets. Loving them and sharing a company with all of them is also an intrinsic part of our life. Everything has its own value that adds meaning to life. Self-help, self-love, and self-faith also form the values of life. It is based on different customs and value systems over which life is built. Also, the connection between nature and life forms and its realization is also valuable for all of us. Thus the value of life depends on several counts of experience.

Short Essay on Value of Life in 400 Words

The value of life cannot be judged through some trifling incidents and occasions. Life is never-ending and huge enough to encompass many beautiful thoughts, companies, and also memories. Life manifests itself not just in human form, but also in plants and animals. All of them constitute and contribute to the ecosystem, of which humans are also a part.

This value of life is assigned to the qualities that we gift to ourselves. It is not just about studying, performing extra-curricular activities, becoming the topper of a class, getting a well-paid job, earning money, and living luxuriously.

Life is much more than this. It is about loving, sharing, and caring. Helping people, giving food to the needy, teaching little children, respecting everyone, playing with pets, spending quality time with parents, all of these add value to our lives. Without good company, life appears lifeless. Also, life is not just only about money. Leading a tension-free, happy life is the essence of it.

The value of life increases when it is properly executed. A small mistake in the present can bring a huge and disastrous impact on our lives. Hence we must always keep our cool and proceed through the journey of life. Life’s value is added through reading books. Books as our companions can save us from many troubling moments.

It gives us knowledge and also a deep insight into ourselves. Reading books is a great achievement of human life and intrinsically valuable to it. The value of life depends on the external as well as internal peace one can experience in his lifetime. Being contended even at the smallest is one of the reasons for being happy in life. All of us make mistakes. But that never outreaches our abilities to make life the most precious resource on earth. The connection between family members, parents and children, friends, neighbours, and also pets, all are part of life.

Even a close bonding with nature and returning to it during any strain makes life a more beautiful place. Hence on several counts life is more precious than simply a tough journey of ups and downs. Its beauty and enjoyability depend on how we gather our values from it and nourish it properly with goodness.

Discarding criticisms, unnecessary opinions, and negative thoughts make life easy and fruitful. Sharing the good moments with close people is a lifetime experience and a fond memory. Only a good job, vast education, social media, money, certificates, and medals may not prove to be the ideal values in life. Life’s value depends on a humble undertaking.

I have tried to write these essays in a very simple language for a better and easier understanding of all kinds of students. If you still have any kind of confusion regarding this topic, let me know through the comment section below. Keep browsing our website for more such sessions on various important topics.

Thank you.

Value of Friends Essay | The Importance of Having Friends

Value of Friends Essay – The value of friends essay is a great topic to write about. Friendship is so important in society today; everyone needs friends. That’s why people may be a little more careful when they choose their friends.

Friendship and happiness are closely connected. We all need friends to share our joys and sorrows. A true friend stands by us in difficult times. He inspires and motivates us and loves us selflessly. Write an article in 125-150 words on ‘The Value of Friends.” You are Prityusha/Prityush.

Value of Friends

by Prityusha

Friendship is something that people take time to appreciate. Friendship includes human values like sympathy, mutual understanding and companionship. Above all, it is about honesty, trust love with a degree of intimacy. Friendship is undoubtedly a central part of our lives, due to concerns we have for our friends and also because our friends can shape as a person. Friends are one of the most important beings we need in our lives. They are a source of not only personal happiness but also a shoulder to lean on when in need. True friends are a kind of gift we receive as we move through life. They listen, care, call or visit us when no one is around and they accept us for who we are. A friend can be an emotional oasis and can make a huge difference in our lives. Friendship transcends all material gains and selfish motives and values. The value of a true friend is immeasurable. It is a matter of heart more than of the mind and must be left to the heart for the decision rather than subjecting it to the scanner of the mind which can sometimes play truant and spoil the friendship. True friendship is based on mutual trust. It must be maintained at all costs and under all circumstances, We can buy gold and diamonds if we have the required amount of money in our pocket, but a genuine friend cannot be bought even with loads of money because true friends are more precious.

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Friendship Paragraph- 100 Words

Friends are one of the most important things in life. They provide us with support, love, and companionship. They make us laugh, help us cry, and are always there for us when we need them. A true friend is someone who knows us inside out and still loves us anyway. They know our strengths and weaknesses and accept us for who we are. They don’t try to change us or control us, but instead they help us grow into the best version of ourselves. Friends are the family we choose for ourselves. They are the people we turn to when we need someone to talk to, and they are always there for us no matter what. They are an essential part of our lives, and we would be lost without them.

The Value of Friends Essay- 150 Words

There’s nothing quite like having a good friend by your side. Good friends are the people we can rely on when we need them the most. They’re the ones who make us laugh when we’re feeling down, and who help us pick ourselves up when we’re struggling. They’re there for us, no matter what. That’s why friends are so important. They provide us with the support and love that we need to get through life’s ups and downs. They remind us that we’re not alone, and that there’s always someone to lean on when things get tough. Friends are priceless treasures that should be cherished and nurtured. If you’re lucky enough to have a good friend in your life, don’t take them for granted. Let them know how much they mean to you, and show them how much you appreciate their friendship.

The Value of Friends Essay- 300 Words

value of Friends Essay- 300 Words edumantra.net

Friends are one of the most important things in our lives. They provide us with support, love, and laughter. The value of friends is something that can never be underestimated. Good friends are a priceless commodity and are worth their weight in gold. They make you laugh when you’re down, help you to get through tough times and are always there for you when you need them. A true friend is someone who knows you inside out and still loves you anyway. They accept you for who you are and don’t try to change you. They are the family that you choose and they will be there for you through thick and thin. Friends are the people who make our lives richer and more fun. They add color and excitement to otherwise mundane days. They help us through tough times and celebrate our successes. We rely on them for honest feedback and shoulder to cry on. In return, we try to be the best friend we can be. They give us someone to confide in, share secrets with and rely on when things get tough. In short, they make life better. Research suggests that friends play an important role in our lives. Studies have shown that friends can help improve our mental and physical health, increase our happiness, and even lengthen our lifespan. So, it seems that having good friends is not just a nice bonus – it’s actually essential for a happy and healthy life. Of course, the quality of our friendships also matters. Simply having a lot of friends does not necessarily mean that we are surrounded by people who truly care about us and have our best interests at heart. It’s important to cultivate close relationships with people who make us feel good about ourselves and whom we can trust to be there for us when we need them. So what is the value of friends? Friends provide us with love, support, laughter, and so much more. They enrich our lives in ways that we cannot even begin to imagine. And they may just be the key to a happy and healthy life. So if you have good friends in your life, cherish them and let them know how much they mean to you. Because they really are worth their weight in gold.

The Value of Friends Essay

Introduction

The value of friends is immeasurable. A single friend can be worth more than gold, and a true friend is worth even more. A friend is someone who understands you, someone you can rely on in good times and bad. A friend is someone who makes you laugh, cry, and think. A friend is someone who is there for you, no matter what. True friends are hard to come by, but they are worth everything. If you have even one true friend in your life, consider yourself lucky.

What are friends for?

Friends are important to have because they provide support, advice, and a shoulder to cry on when needed. They are there for you during the good times and the bad times. Friends are people you can rely on and who will be honest with you. They are someone you can vent to about your problems or share your successes with. A good friend is someone you can trust and confide in. They should also be someone who makes you laugh and enjoys spending time with you. A friend should make you feel comfortable being yourself around them. They should also be someone you can rely on to keep your secrets safe. A friend is someone who will help you when you need it, whether it’s picking you up when you’ve had a bad day or lending a listening ear when you need to talk. They should also be there for you to celebrate your triumphs with. A true friend will be by your side through thick and thin.

The Value of Friends

The value of friends is something that has been studied by researchers for many years. The reason why friends are so valuable is because they provide us with social support. Social support is the help and assistance that we receive from others. It can be in the form of emotional support, financial support, or even just practical assistance. Friends are important because they can offer us social support when we need it. This is especially true for difficult life transitions or times of stress. Research has shown that people who have strong social networks are more likely to cope with stress and adversity than those who do not have strong social networks. So, if you are going through a tough time, lean on your friends – they will be there to support you.

The Benefits of Having Friends

Friends are one of the most important aspects of our lives. They provide us with support, comfort, and companionship. They help us through tough times and celebrate our successes. Having friends is beneficial to our health. Studies have shown that people with strong social relationships are more likely to live longer and have better mental and physical health. Friends can help us stay active and mentally sharp as we age. They can also reduce stress, improve our moods, and boost our immune system. Friends can also help us when we’re going through tough times. They can provide emotional support and practical assistance. They can listen to us when we need to talk and be there for us when we need a shoulder to cry on. In addition to all of these benefits, friends also make life more fun! We can enjoy activities together, share interests and hobbies, and just spend time laughing and enjoying each other’s company. Life is just more enjoyable with good friends by our side.

The Different Types of Friends

It is important to have friends, as they bring different types of support, encouragement and advice to our lives. They also help us to feel connected and appreciated. According to a study by the University of Oxford, people with strong social relationships are 50% more likely to live longer than those who don’t have close friends. There are different types of friends that we might have. Some friends are just casual acquaintances, while others are closer confidants. We might also have friends from different parts of our lives, such as work friends, school friends or neighbours. It’s important to nurture all our friendships, as they all play an important role in our lives.

Casual Acquaintances: These are the people you might see regularly, but don’t really know well. You might chat with them occasionally, but there’s no real depth to the relationship. This isn’t a bad thing – it can be nice to have a few friendly faces in your life. Close Confidants: These are the friends you turn to when you need someone to talk to. They know you well and you can trust them with your secrets. You might not see them as often as you’d like, but when you do catch up it’s always enjoyable. Work Friends: These are the people you see every day at work. You might not socialise outside of work, but you still consider them friends.

The Importance of Choosing the Right Friends

The right friends can have a hugely positive impact on your life, while the wrong friends can lead you down a path of destruction. It’s important to choose your friends carefully, and make sure they are good people who will have a positive influence on you. The right friends will always be there for you, no matter what. They will support you through thick and thin, and they will never judge you. Good friends are also honest with you, and they will tell you the truth even when it’s hard to hear. On the other hand, bad friends will only be around when things are going well for you. They will disappear when you need them the most, and they will always put themselves first. Bad friends will also gossip about you behind your back, and they will try to control you. It’s important to spend time with good people who make you feel happy and supported. These are the kinds of friends who will help you reach your goals and make positive changes in your life.

How to Make and Keep Friends

Here are a few tips on how to make and keep friends:

1) Talk to people: This may seem like an obvious one, but it’s worth repeating. One of the best ways to make friends is simply to talk to people. Get to know them and let them get to know you. This can be done in person or online, but either way, it’s important to put yourself out there and engage with others. 2) Find common interests: A great way to make friends is to find people who share your interests. This could be anything from music and movies to books and sports. When you have things in common with someone, it’s easier to connect with them and develop a friendship. 3) Be yourself: It’s important to be genuine when making friends. Don’t try to be someone you’re not just to impress others or fit in. Be confident in who you are and people will be drawn to your authenticity. 4) Offer help: Friendships are built on give-and-take. If you see someone struggling with something, offer your help or advice. It’s a great way to show that you care and

Friends are an important part of our lives. They provide companionship, support, and love. They help us to laugh and to cry. They are there for us when we need them and they help us to grow as people. We should cherish our friends and value their role in our lives.

Gradient ionomer designed cathode catalyst layer for proton exchange membrane fuel cells with enhanced performance

Huang, Xiaoting
Zhang, Xiaoyan

The catalyst layer (CL) plays a critical role in the electrochemical reactions that occur in proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs). In this study, we employ ionomers with varying equivalent weight (EW) values to create a gradient cathode catalyst layer (CCL) to enhance mass transport and improve water management capability within PEMFC. The best performance is achieved for the membrane electrode assembly (MEA) with gradient CL when the ratio of short side chain (SSC) ionomer near the proton membrane to long side chain (LSC) ionomer near the gas diffusion layer is 3:1. The cell voltage reaches 0.689 [email protected] A cm‑2 (78 °C, 150 kPa, stoic. H2/Air = 2.2/3.2) representing improvements of 55 mV and 14 mV over the MEA with homogeneous CLs containing only LSC ionomer or only SSC ionomer. The porosity measurement indicates that the gradient CL increased the porosity of the MEA. Electrochemical characterization provides evidence that this gradient ionomer design enhances catalyst utilization and reduces mass transfer losses. Furthermore, the durability assessment of the MEAs reveals less performance degradation in the gradient CCL. Therefore, utilizing ionomers with different EW values to construct a gradient CCL is an effective strategy to achieve high power output and long life of PEMFCs.

Proton exchange membrane fuel cell;
Gradient design;
Cathode catalyst layer

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Essay on Love for Students and Children
Love is a set of emotions, behaviors, and beliefs with strong feelings of affection. So, for example, a person might say he or she loves his or her dog, loves freedom, or loves God. The concept of love may become an unimaginable thing and also it may happen to each person in a particular way. Love has a variety of feelings, emotions, and attitude.
The Concept of True Love
Introduction. The concept of true love is based on the belief that to truly love someone you have to accept them for who they are (including their shortcoming and faults), put their happiness above your own (even if your heart is broken in the process) and that you will always love them even if they are not by your side. We will write a custom ...
Essay on Love: Definition, Topic Ideas, 500 Words Examples
A 500-word essay on why I love you. Trying to encapsulate why I love you in a mere 500 words is impossible. My love for you goes beyond the confines of language, transcending words and dwelling in the realm of emotions, connections, and shared experiences. Nevertheless, I shall endeavor to express the depth and breadth of my affection for you.
Short Essay: About Love
About Love Essay Example 1. Love is a universal emotion that has been written about and explored in literature, art, and music throughout human history. It is a complex feeling that can manifest in many different ways, including romantic love, familial love, and platonic love. While love can bring joy and happiness, it can also cause heartache ...
Essay on Love
Long and Short Essays On Love for Students and Kids in English. We have given one long essay on love of 400-500 words and one short essay on love of 200 words. The long essay on love is for students of classes 7,8,9, and 10 and competitive exam aspirants. Short Essay on Love is suitable for students of Classes 1,2,3,4,5 and 6.
Essay on Value Of Love
These acts of love make our world a better place and show the true value of love. 250 Words Essay on Value Of Love Love: A Priceless Treasure. Love is like a warm blanket on a cold winter night, it envelops us in comfort and security. It is the foundation of strong relationships and the driving force behind countless acts of kindness and ...
The Importance of Love
Since love is in fact the source of a vast array of pleasures, hedonism has no difficulty giving love a very important and positive weight. Still, according to this view, love's value is conditional. If a person—or a world—could be just as happy without love as with it, then love would serve no function, and its value would be nil.
Essay on Love
500 Words Essay on Love The Concept of Love. ... Beyond individual experience, love is a social construct that shapes societal norms and values. It is a driving force behind many cultural practices and traditions. Love is celebrated through literature, music, and art, reflecting its deep-rooted significance in human society. ...
The Psychology of Love: Theories and Facts
What is love? Love is an emotion of strong affection, tenderness, or devotion toward a subject or object. When you love a person you experience pleasurable sensations in their presence and are ...
What Is Love?
Love is a set of emotions and behaviors characterized by intimacy, passion, and commitment. It involves care, closeness, protectiveness, attraction, affection, and trust. Many say it's not an emotion in the way we typically understand them, but an essential physiological drive. Love is a physiological motivation such as hunger, thirst, sleep ...
Essay on Love for Students and Children in 1000 Words
Here you will an essay on love for students and children in 1000+ words. It includes significance, different views, friendship vs love, history and more about love in paragraphs. There is never a time or place for true love. It happens accidentally, in a heartbeat, in a single flashing, throbbing moment. - Sarah Dessen, The Truth About Forever.
The Variety of Values: Essays on Morality, Meaning, and Love
Love is the main topic of chapters 9, 10 and 11, but also comes up in other essays as an exemplary source of "values . . . that compete both motivationally and normatively with moral values" (5). In "The Importance of Love" (ch. 10), Wolf defines love as "caring, deeply and personally, for a person for her own sake" (191).
Love, Value, and Reasons
Abstract. It is a familiar thought that in friendship and romance, people's good qualities are reasons for loving them. This chapter clarifies the kinds of reasons—and the forms of reasons-responsiveness and evaluation—at issue. It offers a new model for understanding love as a form of valuing.
Importance of love
Love is indeed that part of life we live for and is the most important things that we live in life for. The importance of love in life finds a new meaning with the advent of love in a person's live. The real mark of greatness is shown only through the kindness and compassion. The most important thing is the caring that you shower on your love ...
6 Short Stories About Love
Love can be found in our relationships with partners, family, and friends. It fuels our passions, our goals, and our values. With these 6 short stories about love from CommonLit's free digital literacy program, your middle school students will explore what love means to them and how to express it. " The Selfish Giant " by Oscar Wilde (6th ...
The Importance of Self-love: [Essay Example], 555 words
Loving myself is important to my life because, through self-love, I learn who I am. Loving myself has always been a key part of my life. Even if at some point in my life I didn't love myself. Being able to love myself had its challenges which had started like anyone else, I'm sure. It had been tricky when I had low self-esteem, and I had ...
Essay On Value Of Love
Essay On Value Of Love. 1029 Words5 Pages. "Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. Love does not demand its own way. Love is not irritable, and it keeps no record of when it has been wronged. It is never glad about injustice, but rejoices whenever the truth wins out.
Of Love by Francis Bacon Summary and Analysis
The essay "Of Love" is an argumentative essay written by Sir Francis Bacon. Bacon in this essay argues about the various ills of falling in love. He particularly argues about the carnal pleasures and its consequences. Sir Francis Bacon is a well-known English Essayist and philosopher. He devoted himself to writing along with scientific work ...
My Personal Values in Life: [Essay Example], 773 words
Body Paragraph 1: Personal Value 1. One of my core values is respect. I define respect as treating others with dignity, kindness, and consideration, regardless of their background or beliefs. I learned the importance of respect from my parents, who instilled this value in me from a young age. In college, I have practiced respect by listening ...
Essays About Values: 5 Essay Examples Plus 10 Prompts
10. Schwartz's Theory of Basic Values. Dive deeper into the ten universal values that social psychologist Shalom Schwartz came up with: power, achievement, hedonism, stimulation, self-direction, universalism, benevolence, tradition, conformity, and security. Look into their connections and conflicts against each other.
Short Essay on Value of Life [100, 200, 400 Words] With PDF
Short Essay on Value of Life in 400 Words. The value of life cannot be judged through some trifling incidents and occasions. Life is never-ending and huge enough to encompass many beautiful thoughts, companies, and also memories. Life manifests itself not just in human form, but also in plants and animals. All of them constitute and contribute ...
Value of Friends Essay
Ans: The value of a best friend in life is priceless. Friends are often there for you when times are tough and can help to fill that hole in your life. It is said that a friendship with someone is like a second home and can be very rewarding. Value of Friends Essay - This essay looks at the importance of friendship.
Changing magma recharge/discharge dynamics during the 2020-22 lava
Mt. Etna exhibited 62 lava fountaining events between December 13, 2020 and February 21, 2022. We analyzed tilt deformations and volcanic tremor amplitude time series, to characterize both eruptions and the preceding preparatory phases in terms of magnitude and speed of development of the volcanic phenomena, as well as to reconstruct the processes that took place inside the plumbing system and ...
Gradient ionomer designed cathode catalyst layer for proton exchange
The catalyst layer (CL) plays a critical role in the electrochemical reactions that occur in proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs). In this study, we employ ionomers with varying equivalent weight (EW) values to create a gradient cathode catalyst layer (CCL) to enhance mass transport and improve water management capability within PEMFC. The best performance is achieved for the membrane ...

Essay on Love for Students and Children

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The Concept of True Love Definition Essay

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The Variety of Values: Essays on Morality, Meaning, and Love

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Love, Value, and Reasons

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2. Love as a Valuing Orientation

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