Love
Love
idea
Love shouldn’t be blind or mad. Instead, fall rationally in love
Blind, all-consuming love goes against your interests and impedes your flourishing. Submit your love to rational scrutiny
by Berit Brogaard
Love
idea
Why it can be sublime to love someone who doesn’t love you back
Unrequited love might be bitter and painful, but it is also the ultimate expression of your humanity. Don’t fight it
by Alexandra Gustafson
Love
idea
What I’ve learned about relationships as an agony uncle
I am an agony uncle. This is what I’ve learned about men, women and how relationships work in my 10 years of giving advice
by James McConnachie
Love
idea
Working, flirting and sex: courtship in 18th-century France
Flirting, sex and affection: working-class couples courting in 18th-century France show they are not so different from today
by Julie Hardwick
Love
idea
The problem with love is deciding who’s doing the dishes
The modern rhetoric of love is all about caring and sharing, and very little about equality and justice. Can philosophy help?
by Patricia Marino
Communication and language
idea
Why it takes humour to sustain a long-term relationship
Maintaining a long and happy relationship requires a specific skillset. Learning to laugh at yourself and together is key
by Enrico Gnaulati
Love
idea
Your partner’s infidelity needn’t be a relationship catastrophe
Infidelity needn’t end a relationship: many people have affairs for reasons that have nothing to do with their partner
by Dylan Selterman
Rituals and celebrations
idea
Rituals create community by translating our love into action
For the Confucian Xunzi, love and gratitude are not just feelings in response to events but possibilities for social action
by Curie Virág
Poetry
idea
Love’s contradictions: Catullus on the agony of infatuation
Behold a man tortured on the rack, pulled apart by love and hate: how to understand Catullus’s best-known poem
by Armand D’Angour
Poetry
idea
Sufi love poetry is in vogue, but few grasp its radical meaning
The Sufi path to love in the poetry of Rumi and ‘Iraqi styles the body as a bridge to the divine in deeply erotic ways
by Matthew Thomas Miller
Emotions
idea
Why is there such a thing as ‘true love’ but not ‘true grump’?
What makes an emotion feel true? And how is that connected to your true self? New insights on old philosophical puzzles
by Shayla Love
Ethics
idea
Morality aside, there’s another good reason to love your enemies
Wishing your antagonists well can be seen as a moral obligation or a misguided ideal. But it might serve your interests
by Alex Moran