Do you believe in romantic love?

[The Blade]

I believe in love, OP, but I'm a realist also. That road goes both ways and nothing's unconditional.

[Hithaeglir]

Yeah definitely but then it changes to more substantial love, being partners in crime, a team etc. My husband is the love of my life but also my best friend.

[Alexandro]

Yes, I do. Well, "real" love is quite rare, but it does happen.

[Luso]

Hard to answer. I think if someone does truly experience this genuine desirability, no bs, no question, real love then it’s probably very rare. Listen, back then women didn’t have the rights to live the way many do now... many back then married in to men who were valuable, had protection and some cases, there was love, some ducking hated each other, but nothing could be done. Nowadays marriage divorce rates are soaring high, and i think in a sense it shows that unconventional love is questionable. Peoples emotions short term, can fucking change fast! Almost bipolar like fast, a women one day can love you and within an hr want to leave you, or within a day have some random biological urge to cheat secretly... and same applies to men with their women. Already defining love and the urges of each gender is hard enough, what makes you think we can define romantic love as a general concept? I have no words, maybe if I do have this beautiful experience I’ll come back and redefine it, but for now it’s undetermined.

Tlr; humans are fucking complex and unless, you yourself, experience this beauty it would be hard for someone who has not to define, or question its existence at all.

[Longbowman]

First off, my original statement concerns parental, not ‘paternal’ love — not sure if that was a typo on your end.

I have absolutely nothing to back that statement up with, but it makes sense when I think about it — if a parent didn’t love their child, then they’d be less likely to look after it, thereby decreasing their offspring’s chances for survival. This, to me, seems counterintuitive when considering the propagation of the human species.

Also, while I understand that not everyone experiences love for their child, this does not seem to be the prevailing sentiment — these people are thankfully in the minority, as opposed to the majority.

Not everyone has it, most do - not everyone is capable of romantic love, but most are.

[Longbowman]

breeders

Glad you've started to accept your place in the gay cultural sphere.

[Geschichte]

Honestly, i don't know...

I used to believe in romantic love until the age of 18-19 y.o. then, after breaking up with my girlfriend at the time, i decided to solely focus on my studies, with some short, occasional affairs.
I became disillusioned about romantic love and started to rationalize the fact that it's just a byoproduct of evolution which doesn't necessarily improve (it's often the contrary) the quality of one's life, at the single individual level (the analysis is obviously different when talk about the entire species, but evolution doesn't take into account the happiness of the single component of a group).

[mitalit]

[JamesBond007]

Parental love is a well-established evolutionary necessity, but what about “romantic” love—specifically that of the enduring, long-term flavor?

Is it nothing more than a simple mechanism for the propagation of a species, or is there additional significance?



Fairly simple question, but interesting topic. Post your thoughts.

Love is metaphysical nonsense it is literally an incoherent concept :

journal article
Wittgenstein's Exclusion of Metaphysical Nonsense
Philip P. Hallie
The Philosophical Quarterly (1950-)
Vol. 16, No. 63 (Apr., 1966), pp. 97-112 (16 pages)
Published By: Oxford University Press

https://www.jstor.org/stable/2218446?seq=1

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[Radimir]

Glad you've started to accept your place in the gay cultural sphere.

See? We're making progress here on theapricity, not everyone is refusing to come to terms with their present condition.