Abstract

This chapter addresses a number of objections against the possibility of a duty to love. Some people believe that a duty to love is an absurdity because duty requires that one can command the action required by the duty, but love is an emotion and is therefore not commandable. This chapter argues that in fact love is commandable even if it is an emotion. This chapter also responds to the concern that really to love a person, we must be motivated to do so for the person’s sake, but to have a duty to love a person means that we would not be motivated to love the person for the person’s sake but for the sake of the duty; and the concern that someone may behave as if he loves a child when in fact he does not in order to satisfy the duty to love.