My opinion is that love is different from sexual attraction, and separable from it. Couples in “romantic relationships” tend to have both; friendships tend to involve only the former; and sometimes, only the latter exists. People who have neither have nothing for each other. Which is to say, there are not many kinds of love, or anything else besides these two things.
Both admit of degrees, so that you can have a lot of love and a little sexual attraction, or the reverse. A “romantic relationship” without sexual attraction is just a very close friendship. To “like” someone is just to have a small degree of love.
People can probably have different sexual orientations, but I think that, most likely, everyone can have love for both sexes. For instance, children can have love for both of their parents, and people are generally able to have friendships of either sex, although they often have more friends of one sex.
Sexual attraction is purely bodily, but love is not purely spiritual. Love is composed of two things. The first is goodwill, i.e., “to will the good of the other”, which is purely spiritual. The second is compassion, which, like all other passions, is an action of the body upon the soul. It may be possible to have only one of these two components for someone, but I doubt it.
No comments:
Post a Comment