Eros, Agape and Philia: Readings in the Philosophy of Love [Paperback]

Alan Soble (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 6, 1998 | ISBN-10: 1557782784 | ISBN-13: 978-1557782786 | Edition: 1st

The philosophy of loveFor centuries, popular writers and respected scholars have written about and analyzed the phenomenon of love without exhausting its potential for contemporary debate. By representing the three major traditions in the philosophy of love--Platonic eros, Christian agape, and Aristotelian philia--editor Alan Soble has not only examined the intellectual problem of what "love" is, but has designed a dialogue among the three traditions in genuine philosophical style. "Eros is acquisitive, egocentric or even selfish; agape is a giving love. Eros is an unconstant, unfaithful love, while agape is unwavering and continues to give despite ingratitude. Eros is a love that responds to the merit or value of its object; while agape creates value in its object as a result of loving it... Finally, eros is an ascending love, the humanÆs route to God; agape is a descending love, GodÆs route to humans... Philia is caught between eros and agape."--From the Introduction to Eros, Agape and Philia ISSUES EXPLORED: --What is the state of love today as seen through the eyes of Plato, Aristotle, and Paul? --How do relations between the sexes illustrate the difficulties of love? --What are the nature and effects of exclusivity, reciprocity, and constancy? --What are the conceptual and psychological ties between sex and love? --Does it make any sense to think of love in moral terms?>

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

ALAN SOBLE is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of New Orleans and is both the founder and director of the Society for the Philosophy of Sex and Love. His other books include Pornography: Marxism, Feminism and the Future of Sexuality, The Philosophy of Sex: Contemporary Readings and The Philosophy of Sex and Love. >

Product Details

• Paperback: 305 pages
• Publisher: Paragon House; 1st edition (August 6, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1557782784
• ISBN-13: 978-1557782786
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 5.9 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #797,381 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Look at Important Love Essays, August 31, 2004

By 

Thomas J. Oord (Nampa, ID United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Eros, Agape and Philia: Readings in the Philosophy of Love (Paperback)

Soble provides this collection of primary writings dealing with the subject of love as a companion volume to an earlier volume of readings on the philosophy of sex. He does so believing that love is "such a rich phenomenon provoking questions in ontology, epistemology, the philosophy of mind, theology and philosophy of religion, and that to restrict the investigation of its many forms and dimensions to the ties between love and sexuality is to commit a painful, conceptual truncation" (ix).

The contents of the book are broken into four main sections: "Where We Are;" "Classical Sources;" "Exploring the Classics;" and a contemporary analysis of love. Throughout the book, Soble often relates the word "love" to its various romantic implications.

Soble's method in putting the book together is to provide three or four primary writings prefaced by a summary of the reason these writings are important. He introduces the entire book, however, by asking, "What is love?" "The complexity of this question - compare it to, What is a chair? - is reflected in the fact that so many different answers to it exists and debates about the nature of genuine love seem impossible to resolve" (xix). Love can be compared to art, for each is equally a difficult domain to describe.

One of the reasons love is so difficult to explain is that the word refers to many different things. Often, however, the attempt to conceptualize love is framed with regard to the Greek love words - eros, philia, and agape. Soble believes that the general characterization of `eros-style' love arises in this way: x loves y because y has attractive or valuable qualities. `Agape-style' love is understood as x loving y independently of y's merit. This book offers original formulations of the theories of eros, agape and phileo and then attempts to explain more generally what these love types might mean for contemporary thinking.

Thomas Jay Oord

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Useful and concrete!, November 25, 2009

By 

A. Reyes "natural space" (CA, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Eros, Agape and Philia: Readings in the Philosophy of Love (Paperback)

In my English as Second language class, my teacher assigns to write about how the conception of Eros, Agaphe and Philia are present in our cinematography. The essay was of course, really interesting to do and this book help me much than others. The author point out the vision of Love in its diverses forms and how conception of love has stayed in our world since initial origins of humanity. Diverse cultures through the history has making strengthen to understand exactly what is that force that make us change and became in a new and better person living in society? What is that vital energy, which is present in everybody that made us treat others with respect, and in some opportunities, developed the more sublime feelings for each others? Love is a concept that everybody is concern about, many civilizations, religions and social movements had theorized about love. Therefore, love could be present in different places, and so, in different ways. Love has been represents in poems, songs, speeches, masterpieces, and performances. The book majestuositly explains the vision of Socrates and Aristoteles about the Greeck conception of Love and the complementarities between man and woman. Also, the presentation of Agape and Philia such as forms of love, conceived the unique and special condition of human beings. The book has important references such Erich Fromm. On the other hands, ofers The principal statement contained in the effect of Agape that is the understanding of equality between men. The idea of community becomes simple when he (man) understands the premise that we are all part of one, all human beings are identical. I recommend this book frankly.