Online research in philosophy

Is romantic love a recent idea? -- Plato -- Beyond idealism -- Concepts of transcendence and merging -- Courtly love and its successors -- Varieties of romantic love -- Identification of love and passion -- Bestowal and appraisal in relation to Freud -- Schopenhauer and Nietzsche -- Dualism and Freud on erotic degradation -- Democracy as related to romanticism -- Existentialism -- The love of life : a pluralist perspective -- Harmonization of Dewey and Santayana -- The role of creativity (...) -- Future prospects for the philosophy of love : science and humanistic studies united. (shrink)

An analysis of concepts of bestowal, appraisal, imagination, and idealization followed by explorations into the writings of thinkers that include Plato, Ovid, ...

While much that is admirable in romanticism stems from Kant's philosophy,a better account of how sexuality can be an ethical possibility exceeds the cramped parameters that he imposes. His conception of marriage and its dependence upon a contractual exchange of rights may well be irremediable because of its formal emptinesses. His idea of human love as good will and an interest in the welfare of the beloved is defensible as far as it goes. But it does not go far enough (...) to explain the morality of love, either in sexuality or in marriage. (shrink)

Preface to the Irving Singer library edition -- Preface to the Johns Hopkins edition -- Preface -- Introduction: Our human predicament -- The meaning of life : rephrasing questions -- The meaning of death -- The creation of meaning -- Lives of meaning and significance -- Conclusion: The love of life.

Preface to the Irving Singer library edition -- Preface -- Introduction: Nature and spirit -- Schopenhauer's pendulum : is happiness possible? -- Beyond the suffering in life -- The nature and content of happiness -- Play and mere existence -- Living in nature -- Imagination and idealization -- Harmonization through art -- Art and spirituality -- The continuum of ends and means -- Aesthetic foundations of ethics and religion -- Conclusion: Love, meaning, happiness.

Preface to the Irving Singer library edition -- Preface -- Introduction: Love and meaning -- Two myths about love -- Persons, things, ideals -- Sexual love -- Love in society -- Religious love -- Civilization and autonomy -- Love, and do as you will.

Does anyone still believe in romantic love? The enormous number of romance novels consumed by American women would seem to indicate that the faith lives on . ...