STUDENT’S MANAGEMENT SYSTEM WITH SMS
A PHENOMENOLOGY OF LOVE
by Manuel B. Dy, Jr.
What is love? The question has been asked since the time of Plato, not only by the professional philosophers but by people from all walks of life. Much has already been written on this subject, answers to the question have been given and many more questions posed; and yet the reality of love has not been exhausted. The very fact that this question of what love is still being asked seems to show that love is part and parcel of man’s life, and a philosophy of man is incomplete without a philosophy of love, of man as loving.
Many of us have the tendency to equate love with romance. The world “love” rings a sweet melody to the ears, brings to the imagination the image of two lovers whispering sweet nothings to each other in the park or on the telephone, unmindful of the rest of the world as if only they matter and exist at all. “Love is a many splendored thing,” so the song goes.
On the other hand, love is pictured many times as an act of possessing or being possessed by another person. People fight and struggle in the name of love. “I love you” has come to mean, “You are mine” and “I want you to do the things I want, I want you to be of what I you want to be.” Or else, it has come to mean, “I am yours, and you can do whatever you want to me.”
For many young people, love has become synonymous with sex. To love another means to be passionately attracted to her and to bring her to bed with me. This equation of love with sex has led to the idea that friendship is not love, that when two lovers break up, they may settle down for friendship as if friendship were inferior to love.
People say, “love is blind and lovers do not see”. This has come to mean that to love is to be attracted to the good qualities of the other. Sometimes this is earned to the extreme of attributing attractive qualities to the other even if they are not there. Love has come to be equated with admiration.
Erich Fromm in his famous book
by Manuel B. Dy, Jr.
What is love? The question has been asked since the time of Plato, not only by the professional philosophers but by people from all walks of life. Much has already been written on this subject, answers to the question have been given and many more questions posed; and yet the reality of love has not been exhausted. The very fact that this question of what love is still being asked seems to show that love is part and parcel of man’s life, and a philosophy of man is incomplete without a philosophy of love, of man as loving.
Many of us have the tendency to equate love with romance. The world “love” rings a sweet melody to the ears, brings to the imagination the image of two lovers whispering sweet nothings to each other in the park or on the telephone, unmindful of the rest of the world as if only they matter and exist at all. “Love is a many splendored thing,” so the song goes.
On the other hand, love is pictured many times as an act of possessing or being possessed by another person. People fight and struggle in the name of love. “I love you” has come to mean, “You are mine” and “I want you to do the things I want, I want you to be of what I you want to be.” Or else, it has come to mean, “I am yours, and you can do whatever you want to me.”
For many young people, love has become synonymous with sex. To love another means to be passionately attracted to her and to bring her to bed with me. This equation of love with sex has led to the idea that friendship is not love, that when two lovers break up, they may settle down for friendship as if friendship were inferior to love.
People say, “love is blind and lovers do not see”. This has come to mean that to love is to be attracted to the good qualities of the other. Sometimes this is earned to the extreme of attributing attractive qualities to the other even if they are not there. Love has come to be equated with admiration.
Erich Fromm in his famous book