Define love

Love: A personal attraction brought about by the ability of a person (or an object) to fulfill one or more personal cravings. The cravings fall into two broad categories; physical and psychological.


What you are talking about is desire.Love is not equivalent(or atleast not supposed) to desire.

I did a quick check of the web on love vs desire. According to at least one website words associated with love include:

warmth, intimacy, kindness, tenderness, support, care, safety, protection, calm, trust

Words associated with desire include:

hardness, heat, power, excitement, a sense of being alive, feeling sexy, hungry, sweaty, tingly, full, energized, driven, abandon, free

Desire is definitely a craving.

I don't understand why love can't be classified as a craving though? We all want it in one form or another and it fulfills a psychological need - the need to belong, to be understood etc...

As far as cravings go, its fulfillment comes with a fair few more conditions than most and with those conditions, considerably greater risks. In order to provide the level of care associated with a loving relationship, both sides must be willing to be completely open with one another. Both sides must be willing to expose the sides of themselves that are normally kept well hidden because that is where they are weakest and that is where others with malicious intent can cause the greatest harm. That said, if you can trust your partner not to take advantage then the benefits are great and well known.

Like a craving, when its being fulfilled there is tremendous pleasure. When it is lost, the pain is intense. That said, the pain fades with time as we adjust to not having our partner. There are exceptions; Queen Victoria spent the last 40 years of her life mourning the loss of Prince Albert.

I stand by my definition - unpleasant though it is.

The difficulty people have in defining love comes because we all experience it in a different way. This is because we all have different psychological landscapes and require different types of understanding.

Desire applies to objects and if applied to people it means objectification of people which we or at least most of us do at various times.But romantic love is exactly or at least supposed to transcend the objectification and it mutual between two people or even a man and a dog.

For an instance many people have dogs and treat them as the most prized object but they can't be said to love their pets. They just have a great desire for them. But some people really love their pets and it shows. These nuances of love are best left to be felt than description. That's why I keep on saying romantic love is a western concept and not eastern one though east has its own "love" it is nothing but desire.

I agree with Vijay arun.

You may crave love, of course - its what we all want, but the actual act of craving has nothing to do with love. Love is as you describe in my eyes, its thats feeling of warmth, calm, security, safty protection, trust, contentment, bliss...

I think love is beyond feelings (which come & go).
The essence of love is wanting the best for ourselves & who we love...
which we learn through trial & error (because desire sometimes clouds what's best).

Vijay arun wrote:Desire applies to objects and if applied to people it means objectification of people which we or at least most of us do at various times.But romantic love is exactly or at least supposed to transcend the objectification and it mutual between two people or even a man and a dog.

For an instance many people have dogs and treat them as the most prized object but they can't be said to love their pets. They just have a great desire for them. But some people really love their pets and it shows. These nuances of love are best left to be felt than description. That's why I keep on saying romantic love is a western concept and not eastern one though east has its own "love" it is nothing but desire.

We will have to agree to disagree.

Happy days,

groucho101

When life began, with the very first multicelled organisms, there were only two basic emotions.

Life. Anything that brings, enhances, or sustains life carries with it a positive reward.

Death. Anything that brings us closer to death, carries with it a negative reward.

The existence of these two basic categories of rewards allowed life to prosper.

Now as we have evolved into very complex muticellular organisms, we have developed more complicated perceptions of what emotions are. But they are really nothing more than the positive or negative rewards that life needs to survive. All emotions are only facets of the two basic emotions. It is easy to see in which category they belong. Fear, hate, anger. Joy, trust, surprise.

Love.

Love is the positive reward that we receive for connecting with other beings.

Connecting with other beings is a major evolutionary advantage that carries with it a correspondingly major reward.

Love to all,

John

Love - whatever you want it to be

Its actually sort of funny because the dictionary defines it as so :

*an intense feeling of deep affection*

strange that something can be defined so easily but has such implications!!

That's true, Koraforever.
Love is basically the driving force for everything we do!

Love for me is a mutual relationship between two people, connected, in which despite each others flaws, there's still a longing to remain spiritually entwined.

I don't think its possible to define it -_- its just a feeling?

Hi Zuriel,
Love is a sweet feeling of great bounding induced by that which delights or commands admiration, devotion to another or preeminent kindness, affection, tenderness.

Define love - Right so being an artist, here is my view

Love can be like a lotus springing up from the middle of the pond at heart of an oasis...
When everything around is scorching & plain.

Or Love can be like a pink rose in a garden of red roses, looking soft & tender with everything around complimenting its beauty!

its a plain and simple feeling wen all ur wants are his/her wants and u become selfless wen comes to him/her

delete