What is Love?
- Thread starter Pink_Pirate
- Start date
Recommended Videos
The main people who believe that altruism is wrong is Randists.
Love is obviously just a series of chemical reactions, but if you feel the need to describe all life in the same manner, everything is just a series of chemical reactions.
As for throwing yourself in front of a bus, that's blindly acting against your own self interest and it's pretty damn stupid.
Love is obviously just a series of chemical reactions, but if you feel the need to describe all life in the same manner, everything is just a series of chemical reactions.
As for throwing yourself in front of a bus, that's blindly acting against your own self interest and it's pretty damn stupid.
Well, that's a good description of our mating instinct, but I figured that out a good few years back. As a desription of 'love'... not so much. Also, it's lacking something.Pink_Pirate said:
If 'Love' was no more than a mating instinct(mating taken here as a sinonym to reproduction), I'm sure it's sole identifier would be a pounding rush of blood to the groin: driving us to give (or receive) the squirt of half a set of chromosomes to our potential mate. However, as you said, there's also the endorphin high.
Endorphin, aside from giving a pleasant feeling is also addictive if I'm correct. The craving for more endorphin makes us stay with our partner to ensure the survival of our offspring. Eventually, not enough endorphin is produced and people break up, creating the possibility to furtherly spread ones genes (after going through endorphin withdrawal).
Also I think there were also similar hormones released in buth sexes during intercourse, which causes both sides to feel bonded or connected in some way, but it's most likely that I'm wrong.
Endorphin, aside from giving a pleasant feeling is also addictive if I'm correct. The craving for more endorphin makes us stay with our partner to ensure the survival of our offspring. Eventually, not enough endorphin is produced and people break up, creating the possibility to furtherly spread ones genes (after going through endorphin withdrawal).
Also I think there were also similar hormones released in buth sexes during intercourse, which causes both sides to feel bonded or connected in some way, but it's most likely that I'm wrong.
I believe that what remains on the social taboo on sex is what's left of Puritan and Victorian society, though I could be mistaken. I seem to remember that one of the Catholic church's Medival catchphrases was something along the line of "Go forth and be fertile!", which later turned into "No birth-control for you!".
humans also derive pleasure from the hormone adrenaline and several other substances, to a more or lesser degree.
Due to the lack of danger in the developped world, people seek out imitation danger (rollercoasters, horror films/novels, action oriented games like fps's and teh like), in order to feel the adrenaline rush.
Also, since ALL emotions are spikes in the hormone concentration of our bloodstream and activity in certain regions of the brain, that makes seeking out well written literature, films, games or music that really tug the heart strings or get the blood flowing into nothing more than seeking the next hormonal high as the OP had put it; thus EVERYBODY seems to be on the level of a junky and reviewers nothing more that the drug quality-control. Of course, this is extremely exaggerated, but you get the point.
Due to the lack of danger in the developped world, people seek out imitation danger (rollercoasters, horror films/novels, action oriented games like fps's and teh like), in order to feel the adrenaline rush.
Also, since ALL emotions are spikes in the hormone concentration of our bloodstream and activity in certain regions of the brain, that makes seeking out well written literature, films, games or music that really tug the heart strings or get the blood flowing into nothing more than seeking the next hormonal high as the OP had put it; thus EVERYBODY seems to be on the level of a junky and reviewers nothing more that the drug quality-control. Of course, this is extremely exaggerated, but you get the point.
One more thing about love.
(please bear with me for the while, and not throw it off as some kind of smug, pseudo-phylosophic smart-assedness)
'Love' is a noun, or a verb in 'to love'; so a word. With words, we describe what observe and experience; though the actual meaning of a word, and the experience described, more often than not, differ from eachother in slight nuances.
The OP described the instinct to mate, and the fluttery feelings that acompany it. This I call an INFATUATION, whilst I would refer to the feeling of bonding to be LOVE.
See the difference?
you know what i think im gonna have to disagree with you there mr. superhyeractiveman. love is in the eye of the beholder, when you're 10 you can easily fall in love, if you feel really strongly about it you can call it love. I personally struggle with definitions of love when you think about when exactly does it stop being just infatuation and lust and become love? where is that line that you cross? Then again why does it have to take time to fall in love? is it so unreasonable to believe in love at first sight? Affection, trust, respect, all feeling that build over time, they can all be synonymous with love, but they are not love. Love is that spark, that something that you just know, weather you know it after 10 years or after 10 seconds is irrelevant.Superhyperactiveman said:
i know a judt did a 180 on my opening argument but meh... I wonder which side I believe in huh?
I agree on Infatuation, but i have to disagree on the Love bit, that bond that's not love, its affection, something you build over time. Love, i see it as this mythical state of mind that people go through, it is beyond simple definition, it's probably one of the most easily recognised, and most abstract idea we humans have, or will, ever come up with. I believe in the myth of love, and that that myth can be true for some people, but it is still an abstract idea, and nothing more, it tries to explain a mixture of feeling and emotions so complex and far reaching it is a parody of itself. Love is Love, nothing more nothing less, let people decide for themselves what it is and what it feels like, we have nothing but the framework of our own minds and experience to base it on.Nocta-Aeterna said:
tbh, love is one of the greater things in life, as the person you are being loved by, be it a family member a friend or a partner they make you feel special in every way as they dont go by your flaws as they are put aside to show the good in you. if you ask be being in love is a great feeling
any who. you cant beat the feeling.
and for those who have not got or not yet found love good luck to you as if you ask me its the best feeling in the world.
end statement
it makes me feel all warm inside
and for those who have not got or not yet found love good luck to you as if you ask me its the best feeling in the world.
end statement
Love is an idea. It is a part of the human psyche, an emotion that we experience. Any attempt to separate love from life is to deprive us of what makes us human. Love is a humanizing trait, something that is so deeply ingrained in humanity that it can't be removed. I agree with what you said at first, love is a reaction to us finding a potential mate, love helps us survive as a species. Yet it is our dominance that has allowed us to take a look back and truly examine the world around us. With that dominance we began to articulate our emotions, we began to discover and contemplate what we feel. Love on a romantic level is a result of that. We live for love, since we were able to find the words to express it we began to actively process it and seek it. Love can be defined, yet love as a defination means as much as statistics to the individual, they are meaningless hollow words. Love at the level of romance needs no defination, it is something that must be experienced to be understood.
Happy? me? Hell no. you think you appreciate such things if you are happy? Nope. In fact right now my relationship is in tatters and I'm on the verge of screaming. But I still love her, hence why I wont end it. I know what she's usually like.Jonatron said: