John said: Love as we usually mean it doesn't really exist biologically.... Love is an emotion that comes from a social reality most apparent in mammals. dmb says:I don't see why love has to be confined to any particular level. Why not say love exists in different forms all through the whole hierarchy of levels. That's pretty much how Plato saw it. Basically, the idea is that we ought to climb the ladder of love up to the highest forms. His distinction between the love of physical pleasure, social honor and the love of wisdom corresponds fairly well with the MOQ's 2nd, 3rd and 4th levels. If we had to extend the analogy to include DQ, maybe we could say it is love itself or Eros itself. Alexander Nehamas, a famous contemporary Platonist, says that on the highest level what we love is what we devote our thoughts and attention toward. We love what we're willing to live with for years and years and that we are profoundly altered by studying something in such a devoted way. He points out that this goes beyond paying attention to the object of love itself. It'll also mean spending time on those things that are related to the object of love that will deepen your appreciation. If you loved the works of Plato, to use a circular example, you'd probably want to learn ancient Greek and study the history of the period. You'd want to learn about Greek Mythology and the pre-Socratic philosophers, etc. Love at the intellectual level doesn't have to be seen in Platonic terms, of course. But it might look something like that. Any kind of devotion to intellectual pursuits would count as love at the intellectual level, no? And it is a certain kind of pleasure that motivates, no? The thrill of an epiphany, the satisfaction of finding that hunch was correct, finding connections between this thinker and that. It's lovely, no? Nookie and kudos ain't too bad either.
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