finally reopened Socrates Café...

[Girlsandboys]

For those who don't happen to dust off old threads or for those who remember it fondly, Socrates Café was a thread where folks brought up philosophical or opinionated discussions on controversial/psychological or philosophical topics.

Topic: What's love got to do, got to do with it.(life) What's love but a second hand emotion?

[Sinn Féin's Ireland]

Hmm. Well, as the proud first response in Socrates i would have to conclude that love has much to do with it. (life)

Consider: What makes us go on? Food, Sex, Oxygen, Fear, and Love. The first three we require to survive. Fear we require for self preservation too. Fear of the unknown, the different. Hence racism and wars.... A little ironic, but fear is as necessary as oxygen or food.

As for love, this we do not require this for self preservation. bacteria get along just fine without marriages.... However it begs the question, why have such capacity for feelings without using them? Love must be neccessary to humanity, or else we would just degenerate into instinctual beings devoid of any intellectual purpose. If we work it right back, what is the point of anything? We might as well just reproduce and then die otherwise.

I believe that love is the opposite of fear. Fear is the lower state of being, and love the higher.

Anyway, a little rambling and not very conclusive, but thats my response.

[Enigmatic]

Love has alot to do with it. Without love what are we? Without love do we have the capacity to do the things we consider good and decent? Without love would we give to the needy? Would we care for the sick? Would we seek cures for diseases, deformities, conditions? Would speak out against injustice? Would we seek peace? I say no. Without love we become just a higher form of animal. Without love we would be a brutish and malevolent race devoid of even the lowest level of compassion. It is true that many do not do the things I listed, they give into fear, anger, hate. Love helps us overcome those emotions. Without love we would have no counter balance, so to speak.

And a Happy New Year!!!

[Girlsandboys]

agree that Love is the opposite of fear and add that to me, the two are irreconciable...by that I mean that where there is fear there isn't love...this can seem cloudy of course, like in the case of the mother who holds her child's hand when crossing the street. Is she afraid of the kid getting hit by a car or is she loving her child and therefore protecting it? Fear spawns distortions that love doesn't kinda like war protestors saying bombing for peace is like fu**ing for virginity.
Remember the little spider monkey experiment where with just food and water the monkey dies but with a cozy robot to cling to it lives? Humans often lose their minds when in isolation. Could not practically every expression be considered either love or a call for love?

[Anime Daisuki]

I think every expression is a call for love in some way. Someone once said "All love is ultimately self love". But there are instances where love is unconditional, without expecting something in return. Like a mother's love <3

[Sinn Féin's Ireland]

Yeah. Philosophize this! ;D

[Girlsandboys]

Einstein said,"or you see everything as a miracle or nothing as one"..so, is Love a miracle, and therefore life a miracle too?

[Otupia]

From my understanding of Thomas Hobbes ideas of perception he thinks that rather than physical objects being perception, the idea they create when viewed is what Creates perception. My arguement is Perhaps rather then the idea being what perception is perhaps function is what creates perception. Check this out, A window can be made of many different substances, Fiberglass, Lead, Bulletproof etc. So what is really a window???! We define window by what it does rather than what it is.

thats my thought


also i thought i would be fun to pull a Frankenstein and bring an old thread back from the dead!

WOOT WOOT

[The Undaunted]

Sinn's response reminded me of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, which is basically a psychology concept that looks like a pyramid in terms of laying out the basic needs of life in order of what people seek out first to last. It starts on the lowest level with the basic necessities, and builds up from there to security, and then love falls in the middle.

Wiki:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow%27s_hierarchy_of_needs

[Otupia]

I feel that most responses in regards to love simply list manifestations of love rather than truly answering the question, My friend Dustin and I discussed this same question last thursday after our Philosophy Class. We were unable to come to a satisfactory conclusion.

[The Undaunted]

The only way to measure love is in terms of manifestations of it. Otherwise it's completely intangible

[Otupia]

exactly, but manifestations are not actual love. Is God tangible? but many people will goto War to prove that IT is there

[The Undaunted]

Yep, manifestations aren't actual love, but my point is that you can't prove, or show someone actual love, because it's completely intangible. Similar to the theory of a God.

[Otupia]

So love can only be known?

[The Undaunted]

Only by the person in love, since any attempt to relate that to others will only be a manifestation of their love, not their actual love

[Otupia]

What about love of everything? I love couches...I cant explain it really, all i can really say is Acid Trip. Every Creation is a manifestation of love therefor we should love everything

[Woonsocket]

^ what he said...

[Echolilia]

This place makes me feel inadequate.

[Aersoldorf]

I'll just sit in the corner and browse the menu. I'm a bit hesitant to ask for what the namesake is having though, didn't seem to sit well with him. I do find it interesting that what we call gravedigging threads used to be referred to as pulling a Frankenstein. I guess you learn something new every day.

[Echolilia]

Have you read Jo Walton's Plato trilogy? Socrates gets what's coming to him.

[Boltor]

Cogito, ergo sum.

[Echolilia]

Bzzzzz