True Love Is Analyzed

Love Actually is a course that teaches students to understand and appreciate the various facets of love from a variety of different perspectives. The course is stratified according to the different weeks it runs, with each week presenting a different theme related to the notion of love. In this way, students can get a more comprehensive understanding of love from a variety of approaches that can collectively influence their regard for this force in the world today.

The focus of the first week of this class is an overview of the very notion of love itself. It is critically to denote that love actually implies a degree of intimacy with others, which is demonstrable via the "bond" of romantic mating 1. Of course, there are numerous degrees of intimacy with which one can have with others -- which means that there are numerous varieties or shades of love. Perhaps a better way to contextualize this idea is that there are different shades of love. For instance, one does not love a romantic partner the same way that one loves a pet. Nonetheless, it is imprudent to assume that the degree of intimacy fostered between a pet and its owner does not count as some form, or shade, of love. To that end, it is useful to create a taxonomy of these twin notions of love and intimacy. Most of those taxonomies can pertain to different types of relationships in which love is involved, such as that pertaining to deities, family members, romantic partners, pets. Additional points of codification include types of family members. There is also unconditional versus conditional love. Additional salient correlations between love pertain to its relationship with happiness. Quite often, there is a need for individuals to experience some form of love to be happy. Simultaneously, the absence of love can lead to depression -- which implies finding it might possibly cure such melancholy.

The second week of this course is focused on the correlation between love and the humanities. This relationship is pivotal, because the humanities provide one of the fundamental ways for people to express love. Additionally, the notion that love can be expressed is also important when understanding the very nature of love itself. Quite simply, those who love want to express their love. One can choose to do so physically (where appropriate depending on the particular level of the taxonomy of love that one is loving), or one can do so creatively and artistically. The latter approach involve some degree of the humanities, the category of formal disciplines which includes literature, visual arts, history, religion, philosophy, other forms of art, etc.

The relationship between love and the humanities largely revolves about the notion that love is something of a muse; "attractiveness" may serve as its basis 2. As such, it is the impetus for a number of different chronicles across the various aforementioned disciplines in the humanities. It is the inspiration for religions, is the root cause for some of the longest and most time honored epic poems, and has played a role in numerous historical (and even martial) encounters. However, when considering the conception of love as a muse and a means of fostering creativity, one must also consider that such creative forces involve idealization and fantasy. In this regard, the dynamic between love and the humanities ultimately involves the imagination, which can both tear asunder bonds or erect them between people based on the perceptions of the one inspired by love. The humanities are essential to understanding love because they demonstrate the truly romantic nature of this force. Such romance does not necessarily have to exist between a man and a woman, but in a man's inspiration to found nations, move mountains, and practice that most god-like quality of actually procreating and engendering the birth of another.

The third week of this course deals with perspectives of evolutionary psychology on love and intimacy. Evolutionary psychology is an interesting discipline which seeks to understand how universal human behaviors have evolved over time. In terms of love and intimacy, then, this perspective considers the nature of procreation, and the evolutionary purpose it plays in enabling people to make babies to propagate their genes. In this regard, love actually has a fairly pragmatic role in that it operates as the foundation upon which human existence is perpetuated.

Another extremely thought provoking aspect of this perspective is that various facets of humanity that have developed over time are related to sexual attraction -- and indirectly related to one of the outputs of sex, procreation. One can argue that various talents that humans possess elicit redemptive value -- and possibly were fostered themselves due to a need for -- attracting others. Some believe that a woman's propesity to orgasm with a man is a means of deciding whether or not he is a good husband (Slater). When one considers the many ways in which poetry, songs, music, and even the visual arts have been used to woo lovers and to attract individual attention to the artist, this notion becomes all the more plausible. One can extend this very tenet to other aspects of human existence such as manufacturing, the hording of capital goods, driving fancy automobiles, etc. From the perspective of evolutionary psychology on love, these facets of humanity simply serve as a means of attracting others.

Finally, examining certain cognitive processes and the human brain itself reveals that there are certain facets of mankind attuned to love and intimacy. Human brains are receptive to the thoughts, feelings and emotions of others, as well as perceptions of beauty. In this respect, the cultivation of the arts (which are various expressions of beauty) is merely a means to captivate another's attention and represents an evolution of the process of falling in love.