Description

Love is defined in many different ways.  It can be thought of as a verb, noun, or even a ‘universal truth’, phenomenon, behavior, feeling, or ideal.   Further, defining it is often difficult because we’re either falling into or out of it in some relationship or another.  Our definition is fed by our past experiences, present situation, and future prospects.  Love is also a complex construction both of nature and nurture, our societies and our biologies.  This video discusses the vast and varying perspectives on love and the explanations people give for it.

Discussion Questions

• Is it even possible to define love?  If not, why?
• What parts of love are built by our culture, and what parts are more biology?
• What would it mean if love was ‘just’ a construct of our society?  What would it matter, if it does, that love were ‘just’ a biological function aimed at ultimately reproduction?

Keywords: love, definition, cultural relativism, biology, emotion, evolutionary psychology, nature, vs nurture, society