Did ancient philosophers avoid marriage and neglect love theory?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Harmony
  • Start date Start date
  • Tags Tags
    Love
Join the discussion
Registration is free. Start your own thread to ask a follow-up.
Sign up Log in
5 replies · 3K views
Harmony
Messages
201
Reaction score
0
I don't post this topic under philosophy forums because there's no philosophical discussion involved.

I and my friend often have discussion on some philosophy topic, and he made the following statement.

1. No philosophers in the ancient times, besides Socrates, has get married.
2. There have been no proper philosophy theory on love.

I don't have any background in philosophy, but I doubt his statements. Can anyone verify the accuracy/flaws of the statements?

Thanks in advance.
 
Physics news on Phys.org

Discussion

According to this, Aristotle's will asked that he be buried next to his wife. The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy has an article on the philosophy of love, so does the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy here. The theory even has words used by the Greeks who discussed love philosophically.
 
Harmony said:
1. No philosophers in the ancient times, besides Socrates, has get married.
2. There have been no proper philosophy theory on love.
Both statements are false, and AKG has given an exception to each statement.

The concept of marriage is different now that it was 2000+ years ago.

Another exception to 2, is Erich Fromm's work on the subject of Love.

and here's another exception to 2.
http://www.iep.utm.edu/l/love.htm

and yet another
http://depts.washington.edu/ctltstaf/example_portfolios/peterson/pages/88351.html

In fact search Google with "Philosophy of Love" and find many exceptions. :rolleyes:
 
Didn't Aristotle talk about love himself?

He said a true friend (you can argue he meant loved one) was someone you would want to spend many moments with and not go too long without communicating and/or being in the presence of your true friend.

Aristotle himself throws both of those comments in the water.
 
I favour Harlan Ellison's philosophy regarding the matter: "Love Ain't Nothing But Sex Misspelled". :biggrin:
 
Aristotle definitely discussed love, though from what I remember from my Ethics course, his definition of things such as friendship and love were somewhat different from the modern definitions.