by Nathan Schmidtke

Created on: April 22, 2008   Last Updated: April 23, 2008

What is love? A question not easily summed up in a short sentence. In the Papuan language, love isn't even considered a concept. In English, love is derived from Germanic forms of the Sanskrit lubh, which translates into desire. An English definition could be summed up as a strong affection. The Greeks on the other had several forms of the word love, with each signifying a certain kind of love.

Eros is a Greek word applied for the passionate love or sexual desire, hence the modern notion of "erotic" (Greek erotikos). According to Plato's writings, Eros refers to a transcendental beauty; the tendency to be attracted to anything that an individual feels is true beauty. The Platonic-Socratic position maintains that the love we generate for beauty on this earth can never be truly satisfied until we die. In the meantime we should venture beyond the particular stimulating image (animate or inanimate) in front of us to the contemplation of beauty in itself. The Platonic form of beauty holds that not the particular individual, but the element they posses, is of true ideal beauty. Plato argues that love isn't physical but a reflection of that part of the object, idea, or person that partakes in ideal beauty.

Philia can be translated into English as being a fondness and appreciation of the other. Basically, philia is the love caused by friendships. Two distinctions of friends can be determined. First, the genus of friendship that involves doing kindness to one another, confiding in one another and seeking in life what the other is seeking. Those people should share the same dispositions as well as admire each other equally. Second is the lesser friendship that is based on the pleasure or utility that is derived from another's company. Business friendships rely on a mutual benefit system where at the end of business actions, the relationship dissolves. Pleasure is received not from the mere company of the individual, but the actions taken by the other. In this same genre of the love hierarchy, exists a love for a man himself. A man should not love himself any more or less than he is loved, but not absolutely equal either.

The third, agape stands for the variety of love commonly associated with the paternal relationship between God and man and vice versa. Agape can also be extended to include the love for humanity as a whole. Biblical references including "Love thy neighbor as thyself" suggest that one must love all other human beings with absolute devotion, whether or not

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