Difference between revisions of "Romantic love" - New World Encyclopedia
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As a literary style, opposed to classical, the romantic style has existed since before 1812. Meaning "characteristic of an ideal love affair" (such as usually formed the subject of literary romances) is from 1666. The noun meaning "an adherent of romantic virtues in literature" is from 1827. Romanticism first recorded 1803 as "a romantic idea;" generalized sense of "a tendency toward romantic ideas" is first recorded in 1840.<ref> [http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=romantic&searchmode=none Online Etymology Dictionary]</ref> | As a literary style, opposed to classical, the romantic style has existed since before 1812. Meaning "characteristic of an ideal love affair" (such as usually formed the subject of literary romances) is from 1666. The noun meaning "an adherent of romantic virtues in literature" is from 1827. Romanticism first recorded 1803 as "a romantic idea;" generalized sense of "a tendency toward romantic ideas" is first recorded in 1840.<ref> [http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=romantic&searchmode=none Online Etymology Dictionary]</ref> | ||
| − | == | + | == Defining romantic love == |
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'''Romantic love''' is a [[Relativism|relative]] term, that distinguishes moments and situations within [[interpersonal relationship]]s. There is often, initially, more emphasis on the [[emotions]] (especially those of [[love]], [[intimacy]], | '''Romantic love''' is a [[Relativism|relative]] term, that distinguishes moments and situations within [[interpersonal relationship]]s. There is often, initially, more emphasis on the [[emotions]] (especially those of [[love]], [[intimacy]], | ||
[[compassion]], [[appreciation]], and general "liking") rather than physical pleasure. But, romantic love, in the [[abstract]] sense of the term, is traditionally referred to as involving a mix of emotional and sexual desire for another as a [[person]]. | [[compassion]], [[appreciation]], and general "liking") rather than physical pleasure. But, romantic love, in the [[abstract]] sense of the term, is traditionally referred to as involving a mix of emotional and sexual desire for another as a [[person]]. | ||
| − | + | Before the 18th century, as now, there were many marriages that were not arranged, and arose out of more or less spontaneous relationships. | |
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| − | Before the 18th century, as now, there were many marriages that were not arranged, and arose out of more or less spontaneous relationships | ||
| − | + | Romantic love is then a relative term within any sexual relationship, but not relative when considered in contrast with custom. Within an existing relationship romantic love can be defined as a temporary freeing or optimizing of [[intimacy]], either in a particularly luxurious manner (or the opposite as in the "natural"), or perhaps in greater spirituality, irony, or peril to the relationship. | |
| + | |||
| + | The cultural traditions of [[Marriage]] and [[betrothal]] are the most basic customs in [[conflict]] with romance, however it is possible that romance and love can exist between the partners within those customs. [[Shakespeare]] and [[Kierkegaard]] describe similar viewpoints, to the effect that marriage and romance are not harmoniously ''in tune'' with each other. | ||
| + | |||
| + | Romantic love, however, may also be classified according to two categories, "popular romance" and "divine"(or "spiritual") romance. '''Popular romance''' may include but is not limited to the following types: idealistic, normal intense (such as the emotional aspect of "[[falling in love]]"), predictable as well as unpredictable, consuming (meaning consuming of time, energy and emotional withdrawals and bids), intense but out of control (such as the aspect of "falling out of love") material and commercial (such as societal gain mentioned in a later section of this article), physical and sexual, and finally grand and demonstrative. '''Divine (or spiritual) romance''' may include, but is not limited to these following types: realistic, as well as plausible unrealistic, optimistic as well as pessemistic (depending upon the particular beliefs held by each person within the relationship.), abiding (e.g. the theory that each person had a predetermined stance as an agent of choice; such as "choosing a husband" or "choosing a soulmate."), non-abiding (e.g. the theory that we do not choose our actions, and therefore our romantic love involvement has been drawn from sources outside of ourselves), predictable as well as unpredictable, self control (such as obedience and sacrifice within the context of the relationship) or lack therof (such as disobedience within the context of the relationship), emotional and personal, soulful (in the theory that the mind, soul, and body, are one connected entity), intimate, and infinite (such as the idea that love itself or the love of a god or God's "unconditional" love is or could be everlasting, if particular beliefs were, in fact, true.) <ref> Romance In Marriage: Perspectives, Pitfalls, and Principles, by Jason S. Carroll http://ce.byu.edu/cw/cwfamily/archives/2003/Carroll.Jason.pdf </ref> | ||
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| + | ==Romance and tragedy== | ||
| − | + | The ''tragic'' contradiction between romance and society is most forcibly portrayed in Tolstoy's ''[[Anna Karenina]]'', in Flaubert's ''[[Madame Bovary]]'', and of course, in ''Romeo and Juliet.'' The female protagonists in such stories are driven to suicide as if dying for a cause of freedom from the various oppressions of marriage. Even after sexual revolutions, on the other hand, to the extent that it does not lead to procreation, romance remains peripheral, though it may have virtues in the relief of [[stress]], as a source of inspiration or adventure, or in development and the strengthening of certain social relations. It is difficult to imagine such tragic heroines, however, as having such practical considerations in mind. | |
| − | + | "Romantic," as implied above, has both the connotations of [[courtly love]] and urgent, mutual physical desire, or both spirituality and superficiality. A parallel division occurs in marriage, where sexual relations prepare for and harmonize with later responsibilities.<ref> see [[Alex Comfort]].</ref> | |
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Romance can also be tragic in its conflict with society. [[Tolstoy]] also focuses on the romantic limitations of marriage, and Anna Karenina prefers death to being married to her fiancée. Furthermore, in the speech about marriage that is given in Kierkegaard's ''[[Either/Or]]'', Kierkegaard attempts to show that it is because marriage is lacking in passion fundamentally, that the nature of marriage, unlike romance, is explainable by a man who has experience of neither marriage nor love. | Romance can also be tragic in its conflict with society. [[Tolstoy]] also focuses on the romantic limitations of marriage, and Anna Karenina prefers death to being married to her fiancée. Furthermore, in the speech about marriage that is given in Kierkegaard's ''[[Either/Or]]'', Kierkegaard attempts to show that it is because marriage is lacking in passion fundamentally, that the nature of marriage, unlike romance, is explainable by a man who has experience of neither marriage nor love. | ||
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—Romeo and Juliet, Act II, Scene II—by William Shakespeare</blockquote> | —Romeo and Juliet, Act II, Scene II—by William Shakespeare</blockquote> | ||
| − | + | ==Erotic love versus romantic love== | |
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Greek philosophers and authors had many theories of love, some of which are presented in Plato's ''Symposium'' where six Athenian friends including Socrates drink wine and each give a speech praising the god [[Eros]]. When his turn comes, [[Aristophanes]] says in his [[myth]]ical speech that sexual partners seek each other because they are descended from beings with spherical torsos, two sets of human limbs, genitalia on each side, and two faces back to back. Their three forms included the three permutations of pairs of gender (i.e. one masculine and masculine, another feminine and feminine, and the third masculine and feminine) and they were split by the gods to thwart the creatures' assault on heaven, recapitulated, according to the comic playwright, in other myths such as the [[Aloadae]].<ref>''Symposium 189d ff.</ref> This story is relevant to modern romance partly because of the image of reciprocity it shows between the sexes. In the final speech before [[Alcibiades]] arrives, [[Socrates]] gives his encomium of love and desire as a lack of being, namely, the being or form of [[beauty]]. [[Deleuze]] linked this idea of love as a lack mainly to [[Freud]], and Deleuze often criticized it. | Greek philosophers and authors had many theories of love, some of which are presented in Plato's ''Symposium'' where six Athenian friends including Socrates drink wine and each give a speech praising the god [[Eros]]. When his turn comes, [[Aristophanes]] says in his [[myth]]ical speech that sexual partners seek each other because they are descended from beings with spherical torsos, two sets of human limbs, genitalia on each side, and two faces back to back. Their three forms included the three permutations of pairs of gender (i.e. one masculine and masculine, another feminine and feminine, and the third masculine and feminine) and they were split by the gods to thwart the creatures' assault on heaven, recapitulated, according to the comic playwright, in other myths such as the [[Aloadae]].<ref>''Symposium 189d ff.</ref> This story is relevant to modern romance partly because of the image of reciprocity it shows between the sexes. In the final speech before [[Alcibiades]] arrives, [[Socrates]] gives his encomium of love and desire as a lack of being, namely, the being or form of [[beauty]]. [[Deleuze]] linked this idea of love as a lack mainly to [[Freud]], and Deleuze often criticized it. | ||
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[[René Girard]], for example, argues that romantic attraction—not marriage per se—is a product of rivalry, particularly in a triangular form, a view mostly popularized in Girard's theory of mimetic desire, controversial because of its alleged [[sexism]]. The view has to some extent supplanted its predecessor, Freudian Oedipal theory. It may find even some spurious support in the supposed attraction of women to "bad" men, i.e., implying the deflection of male aggression back toward a man and his rival, rather than their beloved. As a technique of attraction, often combined with irony, it is sometimes advised that one feign toughness and disinterest, but it can be a trivial or crude idea to promulgate to men, and it is not given with much understanding of mimetic desire in mind. | [[René Girard]], for example, argues that romantic attraction—not marriage per se—is a product of rivalry, particularly in a triangular form, a view mostly popularized in Girard's theory of mimetic desire, controversial because of its alleged [[sexism]]. The view has to some extent supplanted its predecessor, Freudian Oedipal theory. It may find even some spurious support in the supposed attraction of women to "bad" men, i.e., implying the deflection of male aggression back toward a man and his rival, rather than their beloved. As a technique of attraction, often combined with irony, it is sometimes advised that one feign toughness and disinterest, but it can be a trivial or crude idea to promulgate to men, and it is not given with much understanding of mimetic desire in mind. | ||
| − | Girard, in any case, downplays romance's ''individuality'' in favor of [[jealousy]] and the [[love triangle]], arguing that romantic attraction arises primarily in the ''observed'' attraction between two others. A natural objection is that this is [[circular reasoning]], but Girard means that a small measure of attraction reaches a critical point in so far as it is caught up in mimesis. Shakespeare's ''A Midsummer Night's Dream'', ''As You Like It'', and ''The Winter's Tale'' are the best known examples. | + | Girard, in any case, downplays romance's ''individuality'' in favor of [[jealousy]] and the [[love triangle]], arguing that romantic attraction arises primarily in the ''observed'' attraction between two others. A natural objection is that this is [[circular reasoning]], but Girard means that a small measure of attraction reaches a critical point in so far as it is caught up in mimesis. Shakespeare's ''A Midsummer Night's Dream'', ''As You Like It'', and ''The Winter's Tale'' are the best known examples. Mimetic desire is often challenged by [[feminists]], such as [[Toril Moi]],<ref>The Missing Mother: The Oedipal Rivalries of René Girard. Toril Moi, Diacritics Vol. 12, No. 2, Cherchez la Femme Feminist Critique/Feminine Text (Summer, 1982), pp. 21-31</ref> who argue that it does not account for the woman as inherently desired. |
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| − | + | ==Platonic love versus romantic love== | |
| − | Romantic love is contrasted with Platonic love which in all usages precludes sexual relations, yet only in the modern usage does it take on a fully [[asexual]] sense, rather than the classical sense in which sexual drives are sublimated. [[Sublimation]] tends to be forgotten in casual thought about love aside from its emergence in psychoanalysis and Nietzsche. | + | Romantic love is contrasted with Platonic love which in all usages precludes sexual relations, yet only in the modern usage does it take on a fully [[asexual]] and (often) [[homosexual]] sense, rather than the classical sense in which sexual drives are sublimated. [[Sublimation]] tends to be forgotten in casual thought about love aside from its emergence in psychoanalysis and Nietzsche. [[Unrequited love]] can be romantic, if only in a comic or tragic sense, or in the sense that sublimation itself is comparable to romance, where the spirituality of both art and egalitarian ideals is combined with strong character and emotions. This situation is typical of the period of [[Romanticism]], but that term is distinct from any romance that might arise within it. Romantic love might be requited emotionally and physically while not being [[consummated]], when either one or both parties agree. |
| − | + | The process of courtship also contributed to [[Schopenhauer]]'s pessimism, despite his own romantic success,<ref>''Essays and Aphorisms''</ref> and he argued that to be rid of the challenge of courtship would drive people to suicide with boredom. Individuals seek partners who share certain interests and tastes, while at the same time looking for a "complement" or completing of themselves in a partner. | |
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| − | + | Even though there often appears to be traces of romance and love being intertwined in various cultures and socities throughout history, [[Gary Zukav]], best selling author of ''Seat of the Soul and Soul Stories'', views romantic love as being an illusion, stating that the concept of romantic love can never be truly fulfilling. He states that "Romance is your desire to make yourself complete through another person rather than through your own inner work," thus, isolating the idea of romance from the concept of "true love." His argument is that "real love" is more beneficial than romantic involvement alone. <ref>Soul Stories, Gary Zukav—Note: This quotation and or source may be partially or completely inaccurate.</ref> | |
| − | + | Romantic love may, then, be a [[human sexual behavior|sexual]] [[love]] that attempts to transcend, in some cases entirely, mere needs driven by physical appearances, [[lust|sexual desire]], or material and social gain. This transcending, ultimately, implies not just that personality is more essential, which could be considered a [[truism]], and a view that might appear without much regard to virtue, ranging from the noble to the most shallow character. Rather, romance tends to strive to see, or suppose it can see, personality as attractive in a fundamentally higher ''sense.'' In some religions, all forms of love (and art) may be regarded as indirectly seeking God—and therefore adding to a relationship with God—whereas at the same time, such lesser objects of love are sometimes regarded as distinct from God and an obstacle in the path of spirituality. | |
| − | + | Not only theologians, but many philosophers debate this, especially in continental philosophy in [[existentialism]], and in analytic philosophy, in views such as [[emotivism]]. Things lesser than personality, however, as well as the practical aspects of personality, often play a role in romance's arousal and justification. | |
| − | + | Romance then, raises questions of [[emotivism]] (or in a more pejorative sense, [[nihilism]]) such as whether spiritual attraction, of the world, might not actually rise above or distinguish itself from that of the body or aesthetic sensibility. | |
==Notes== | ==Notes== | ||
Revision as of 02:55, 16 November 2007
| Part of a series on Love |
| Historically |
|---|
| Courtly love |
| Greek love |
| Religious love |
| Types of Emotion |
| Erotic love |
| Platonic love |
| Familial love |
| Puppy love |
| Romantic love |
| See Also |
| Unrequited love |
| Problem of love |
| Sexuality |
| Sexual intercourse |
| Valentine's Day |
"Romantic love" is a general term referring to the connection between "love" and the general idea of "romance," according to more traditional usages of the terms. Historically the term "romance" did not necessarily imply love relationships, but rather was seen as an artistic expression of one's innermost desires; sometimes including love, sometimes not. Romance is still sometimes viewed as an expressionistic, or artful form, but within the context of "romantic love" relationships it usually implies an expression of one's love, or one's deep emotional desires to connect with another person. It is (often) an exaggerated or decorated (more exciting than they really are) expression of love[1][2]. "Romance" in this sense can therefore be defined as attachment, fascination, or enthusiasm for something or someone. Romantic love usually includes the characteristics of not being easily controlled, while not being overtly (initially at least) predicated on a desire for the physical act of sex.
History and Etymology
Historians believe that the actual English word "romance" developed from a vernacular dialect within the French language, meaning "verse narritve," referring to the style of speech and writing, and artistic talents within elite classes. The word was orginally an adverb of sorts, which was of the Latin origin "Romanicus," meaning "of the Roman style," "like the Romans" (see Roman.) The connecting notion is that European medieval vernacular tales were usually about chivalric adventure, not combining the idea of love until late into the seventeenth century. The word "romance," or the equivilent thereof also has developed with other meanings in other languages, such as the early nineteenth century Spanish and Italian definitions of "adventurous" and "passionate," sometimes combining the idea of "love affair" or "idealistic quality."
The more current and Western traditional terminology meaning "court as lover" or the general idea of "romantic love" is believed to have originated in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, primarily from that of the French culture. This idea is what has spurred the connection between the words "romantic" and "lover," thusly coining the English phrase "romantic love" (i.e "loving like the Roman's do".) But the precise origins of such a connection are unknown.
As a literary style, opposed to classical, the romantic style has existed since before 1812. Meaning "characteristic of an ideal love affair" (such as usually formed the subject of literary romances) is from 1666. The noun meaning "an adherent of romantic virtues in literature" is from 1827. Romanticism first recorded 1803 as "a romantic idea;" generalized sense of "a tendency toward romantic ideas" is first recorded in 1840.[3]
Defining romantic love
Romantic love is a relative term, that distinguishes moments and situations within interpersonal relationships. There is often, initially, more emphasis on the emotions (especially those of love, intimacy, compassion, appreciation, and general "liking") rather than physical pleasure. But, romantic love, in the abstract sense of the term, is traditionally referred to as involving a mix of emotional and sexual desire for another as a person.
Before the 18th century, as now, there were many marriages that were not arranged, and arose out of more or less spontaneous relationships.
Romantic love is then a relative term within any sexual relationship, but not relative when considered in contrast with custom. Within an existing relationship romantic love can be defined as a temporary freeing or optimizing of intimacy, either in a particularly luxurious manner (or the opposite as in the "natural"), or perhaps in greater spirituality, irony, or peril to the relationship.
The cultural traditions of Marriage and betrothal are the most basic customs in conflict with romance, however it is possible that romance and love can exist between the partners within those customs. Shakespeare and Kierkegaard describe similar viewpoints, to the effect that marriage and romance are not harmoniously in tune with each other.
Romantic love, however, may also be classified according to two categories, "popular romance" and "divine"(or "spiritual") romance. Popular romance may include but is not limited to the following types: idealistic, normal intense (such as the emotional aspect of "falling in love"), predictable as well as unpredictable, consuming (meaning consuming of time, energy and emotional withdrawals and bids), intense but out of control (such as the aspect of "falling out of love") material and commercial (such as societal gain mentioned in a later section of this article), physical and sexual, and finally grand and demonstrative. Divine (or spiritual) romance may include, but is not limited to these following types: realistic, as well as plausible unrealistic, optimistic as well as pessemistic (depending upon the particular beliefs held by each person within the relationship.), abiding (e.g. the theory that each person had a predetermined stance as an agent of choice; such as "choosing a husband" or "choosing a soulmate."), non-abiding (e.g. the theory that we do not choose our actions, and therefore our romantic love involvement has been drawn from sources outside of ourselves), predictable as well as unpredictable, self control (such as obedience and sacrifice within the context of the relationship) or lack therof (such as disobedience within the context of the relationship), emotional and personal, soulful (in the theory that the mind, soul, and body, are one connected entity), intimate, and infinite (such as the idea that love itself or the love of a god or God's "unconditional" love is or could be everlasting, if particular beliefs were, in fact, true.) [4]
Romance and tragedy
The tragic contradiction between romance and society is most forcibly portrayed in Tolstoy's Anna Karenina, in Flaubert's Madame Bovary, and of course, in Romeo and Juliet. The female protagonists in such stories are driven to suicide as if dying for a cause of freedom from the various oppressions of marriage. Even after sexual revolutions, on the other hand, to the extent that it does not lead to procreation, romance remains peripheral, though it may have virtues in the relief of stress, as a source of inspiration or adventure, or in development and the strengthening of certain social relations. It is difficult to imagine such tragic heroines, however, as having such practical considerations in mind.
"Romantic," as implied above, has both the connotations of courtly love and urgent, mutual physical desire, or both spirituality and superficiality. A parallel division occurs in marriage, where sexual relations prepare for and harmonize with later responsibilities.[5]
Romance can also be tragic in its conflict with society. Tolstoy also focuses on the romantic limitations of marriage, and Anna Karenina prefers death to being married to her fiancée. Furthermore, in the speech about marriage that is given in Kierkegaard's Either/Or, Kierkegaard attempts to show that it is because marriage is lacking in passion fundamentally, that the nature of marriage, unlike romance, is explainable by a man who has experience of neither marriage nor love.
In the following excerpt, from Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, Romeo, in saying "all combined, save what thou must combine By holy marriage" implies that it is not marriage with Juliet that he seeks but simply to be joined with her romantically. That "I pray That thou consent to marry us" implies that the marriage means the removal of the social obstacle between the two opposing families, not that marriage is sought by Romeo with Juliet for any other particular reason, such as adding to their love or giving it any more meaning.
"Then plainly know my heart's dear love is set On the fair daughter of rich Capulet: As mine on hers, so hers is set on mine; And all combined, save what thou must combine By holy marriage: when and where and how We met, we woo'd and made exchange of vow, I'll tell thee as we pass; but this I pray, That thou consent to marry us to-day."
—Romeo and Juliet, Act II, Scene II—by William Shakespeare
Erotic love versus romantic love
Greek philosophers and authors had many theories of love, some of which are presented in Plato's Symposium where six Athenian friends including Socrates drink wine and each give a speech praising the god Eros. When his turn comes, Aristophanes says in his mythical speech that sexual partners seek each other because they are descended from beings with spherical torsos, two sets of human limbs, genitalia on each side, and two faces back to back. Their three forms included the three permutations of pairs of gender (i.e. one masculine and masculine, another feminine and feminine, and the third masculine and feminine) and they were split by the gods to thwart the creatures' assault on heaven, recapitulated, according to the comic playwright, in other myths such as the Aloadae.[6] This story is relevant to modern romance partly because of the image of reciprocity it shows between the sexes. In the final speech before Alcibiades arrives, Socrates gives his encomium of love and desire as a lack of being, namely, the being or form of beauty. Deleuze linked this idea of love as a lack mainly to Freud, and Deleuze often criticized it.
Attraction, often based simply on common interests, can also appear mysterious and irrational, but therapists and support groups of many kinds attempt to analyze the process. Though there are many theories of romantic love such as that of Robert Sternberg in which it is merely a mean combining liking and sexual desire, the major theories involve far more insight. For most of the 20th century, Freud's theory of the family drama dominated theories of romance and sexual relationships. This has given rise to a few counter-theories. Theorists like Deleuze counter Freud and Lacan by attempting to return to a more naturalistic philosophy.
René Girard, for example, argues that romantic attraction—not marriage per se—is a product of rivalry, particularly in a triangular form, a view mostly popularized in Girard's theory of mimetic desire, controversial because of its alleged sexism. The view has to some extent supplanted its predecessor, Freudian Oedipal theory. It may find even some spurious support in the supposed attraction of women to "bad" men, i.e., implying the deflection of male aggression back toward a man and his rival, rather than their beloved. As a technique of attraction, often combined with irony, it is sometimes advised that one feign toughness and disinterest, but it can be a trivial or crude idea to promulgate to men, and it is not given with much understanding of mimetic desire in mind.
Girard, in any case, downplays romance's individuality in favor of jealousy and the love triangle, arguing that romantic attraction arises primarily in the observed attraction between two others. A natural objection is that this is circular reasoning, but Girard means that a small measure of attraction reaches a critical point in so far as it is caught up in mimesis. Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, As You Like It, and The Winter's Tale are the best known examples. Mimetic desire is often challenged by feminists, such as Toril Moi,[7] who argue that it does not account for the woman as inherently desired.
Platonic love versus romantic love
Romantic love is contrasted with Platonic love which in all usages precludes sexual relations, yet only in the modern usage does it take on a fully asexual and (often) homosexual sense, rather than the classical sense in which sexual drives are sublimated. Sublimation tends to be forgotten in casual thought about love aside from its emergence in psychoanalysis and Nietzsche. Unrequited love can be romantic, if only in a comic or tragic sense, or in the sense that sublimation itself is comparable to romance, where the spirituality of both art and egalitarian ideals is combined with strong character and emotions. This situation is typical of the period of Romanticism, but that term is distinct from any romance that might arise within it. Romantic love might be requited emotionally and physically while not being consummated, when either one or both parties agree.
The process of courtship also contributed to Schopenhauer's pessimism, despite his own romantic success,[8] and he argued that to be rid of the challenge of courtship would drive people to suicide with boredom. Individuals seek partners who share certain interests and tastes, while at the same time looking for a "complement" or completing of themselves in a partner.
Even though there often appears to be traces of romance and love being intertwined in various cultures and socities throughout history, Gary Zukav, best selling author of Seat of the Soul and Soul Stories, views romantic love as being an illusion, stating that the concept of romantic love can never be truly fulfilling. He states that "Romance is your desire to make yourself complete through another person rather than through your own inner work," thus, isolating the idea of romance from the concept of "true love." His argument is that "real love" is more beneficial than romantic involvement alone. [9]
Romantic love may, then, be a sexual love that attempts to transcend, in some cases entirely, mere needs driven by physical appearances, sexual desire, or material and social gain. This transcending, ultimately, implies not just that personality is more essential, which could be considered a truism, and a view that might appear without much regard to virtue, ranging from the noble to the most shallow character. Rather, romance tends to strive to see, or suppose it can see, personality as attractive in a fundamentally higher sense. In some religions, all forms of love (and art) may be regarded as indirectly seeking God—and therefore adding to a relationship with God—whereas at the same time, such lesser objects of love are sometimes regarded as distinct from God and an obstacle in the path of spirituality.
Not only theologians, but many philosophers debate this, especially in continental philosophy in existentialism, and in analytic philosophy, in views such as emotivism. Things lesser than personality, however, as well as the practical aspects of personality, often play a role in romance's arousal and justification.
Romance then, raises questions of emotivism (or in a more pejorative sense, nihilism) such as whether spiritual attraction, of the world, might not actually rise above or distinguish itself from that of the body or aesthetic sensibility.
Notes
- ↑ Romance, Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary, [1], dictionary.com
- ↑ Love 101 : To Love Oneself Is the Beginning of a Lifelong Romance (The Life 101 Series) by Peter McWilliams
- ↑ Online Etymology Dictionary
- ↑ Romance In Marriage: Perspectives, Pitfalls, and Principles, by Jason S. Carroll http://ce.byu.edu/cw/cwfamily/archives/2003/Carroll.Jason.pdf
- ↑ see Alex Comfort.
- ↑ Symposium 189d ff.
- ↑ The Missing Mother: The Oedipal Rivalries of René Girard. Toril Moi, Diacritics Vol. 12, No. 2, Cherchez la Femme Feminist Critique/Feminine Text (Summer, 1982), pp. 21-31
- ↑ Essays and Aphorisms
- ↑ Soul Stories, Gary Zukav—Note: This quotation and or source may be partially or completely inaccurate.
ReferencesISBN links support NWE through referral fees
- Alberoni, Francesco, Falling in Love. Random House Inc (T); 1st American ed edition (December 1983). ISBN 978-0394530079.
- Kierkegaard, Søren. Stages on Life's Way : Kierkegaard's Writings, Vol 11. Princeton University Press; New Ed edition (November 1, 1988). ISBN 978-0691020495.
- Levi-Strauss, Claude. Structural Anthropolgy. Basic Books; New Ed edition (January 2000). ISBN 978-0465095162.
- Nietzsche, Friedrich. Human, All-Too-Human: Parts One and Two (Philosophical Classics). Dover Publications; Dover Ed edition (January 20, 2006). ISBN 978-0486445663.
- Denis de Rougemont, Love in the Western World. Schocken (January 27, 1990). ISBN 978-0805209501.
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