Author Description
What Is Love's Real Aim? Why Is It So Ruthlessly Selective In Its Choice Of Loved Ones? Why Do We Love At All? In Addressing These Questions, Simon May Develops A Radically New Understanding Of Love As The Emotion We Feel Towards Whomever Or Whatever We Experience As Grounding Our Life--as Offering Us A Possibility Of Home In A World That We Supremely Value. He Sees Love As Motivated By A Promise Of Ontological Rootedness, Rather Than, As Two Thousand Years Of Tradition Variously Asserts, By Beauty Or Goodness, By A Search For Wholeness, By Virtue, By Sexual Or Reproductive Desire, By Compassion Or Altruism Or Empathy, Or, In One Of Today's Dominant Views, By No Qualities At All Of The Loved One. After Arguing That Such Founding Western Myths As The Odyssey And Abraham's Call By God To Canaan In The Bible Powerfully Exemplify His New Conception Of Love, May Goes On To Re-examine The Relation Of Love To Beauty, Sex, And Goodness In The Light Of This Conception, Offering Among Other Things A Novel Theory Of Beauty--and Suggesting, Against Plato, That We Can Love Others For Their Ugliness (while Also Seeing Them As Beautiful). Finally, He Proposes That, In The Western World, Romantic Love Is Gradually Giving Way To Parental Love As The Most Valued Form Of Love: Namely, The Love Without Which One's Life Is Not Deemed Complete Or Truly Flourishing. May Explains Why Childhood Has Become Sacred And Excellence In Parenting A Paramount Ideal--as Well As A Litmus Test Of Society's Moral Health. In Doing So, He Argues That The Child Is The First Genuinely Modern Supreme Object Of Love: The First To Fully Reflect What Nietzsche Called The Death Of God.
Menrva's Summary
THE THESIS
This book investigates the fundamental nature of love by questioning why humans experience it as a selective, grounding force rather than a response to beauty or moral goodness. Simon May, a visiting professor of philosophy at Birkbeck College, University of London, challenges two millennia of Western tradition regarding the origins of love. He utilizes a philosophical framework to argue that love is primarily a search for ontological rootedness, providing individuals with a sense of home in an uncertain world.
THE SCOPE MAP
What You Will Find
- A re-evaluation of Western myths including the Odyssey and the biblical narrative of Abraham.
- A novel theory of beauty that allows for the appreciation of ugliness within the beloved.
- An analysis of the cultural shift from romantic love to parental love as the primary societal ideal.
Scope Limits
- The text does not provide a biological or evolutionary account of love.
- It does not offer practical advice or self-help strategies for improving personal relationships.
THE AUTHORITY PERSPECTIVE
Critics and scholars frequently note the intellectual rigor and philosophical density of May's prose. Experts highlight this work as a provocative contribution to the history of ideas that challenges established Platonic and Christian interpretations of human affection.
Page Count:
256
Publication Date:
2019-01-01
ISBN-10:
0190884843
ISBN-13:
9780190884840
Psychology
Non-Fiction
Philosophy
Sociology