The Philosophy of Love

Everyone wants love, but no one can tell you exactly what love
is. In this episode, we deep dive into seven philosophical
perspectives on love, ranging from the Ancient Greeks to the
existentialists. If you’re curious whether Plato thought
soulmates were real or Kierkegaard would tell you to text your
ex, this episode is for you. 





EPISODE OUTLINE 


00:00 Intro (the philosophy of love)


03:19 What even is love? (hypotheticals on love)


07:07 Ancient Greek philosophy on love 


07:35 Origins of the concept of soulmates (Plato’s The Symposium)


09:03 Socrates’ ladder of love 


13:03 Enlightenment thinkers on love 


13:15 Love as social performance (Rousseau)


13:58 Rousseau’s two types of self love 


15:22 How self love affects how you love others


17:31 The humanity formula (Kant)   


19:49 Practical vs. passionate love (Kant)


22:07 Love as a trick (Schopenhauer)


24:04 Why do opposites attract? (Schopenhauer)


24:28 Is love just biological encouragement to reproduce?
(Schopenhauer)


26:06 Existentialists on love


26:14 The tension between love and freedom of choice (Sartre)


27:50 Love as an objectifying force (Sartre)


30:32 Jean Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir’s non-monogamous
love story 


31:40 The relationship between love and possession (de
Beauvoir) 


33:06 How your fear of being seen impacts your ability to give
and receive love (Sartre, Doestoevsky, de Beauvoir) 


36:54 Kierkegaard’s Works of Love 


37:22 Unreasonable standards in love (Kierkegaard)


42:24 Lightning round recap





MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE


Plato, The Symposium (c. 385–370 BCE)

Jean-Jacques Rousseau, The Social Contract (1762)

Immanuel Kant, Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals (1785)

Immanuel Kant, The Metaphysics of Morals (1797)

Arthur Schopenhauer, The World as Will and Representation
(1818)

Søren Kierkegaard, Works of Love (1847)

Fyodor Dostoevsky, Notes from Underground (1864)

Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness (1943)

Jean-Paul Sartre, No Exit (1944)

Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex (1949)

Gordon Marino, The Existentialist’s Survival Guide (2018)






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