“The human need for love is rooted in our awareness of our individual separateness and aloneness within the natural and social worlds. This is one of the existential dichotomies which characterize the human condition: “Man is alone and he is related at the same time” (Fromm, Man for Himself, 1947). Many philosophers have addressed this paradoxical aspect of being human, and there has been a general consensus on the essential relationship between well-being, flourishing, even survival, and the experience of loving relationships and friendships. As the Irish poet Brendan Kennelly notes, “the self knows that self is not enough, / the deepest well becomes exhausted” (from Familiar Strangers). The possibility of love exists within an acknowledgement of this insufficiency.”

The above passage is an excerpt from this wonderful essay by Kathleen O’Dwyer over at Philosophy Now. Kathleen asks the question: Is Love An Art? I like where she’s going 🙂

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Painting above by Santiago Salvador

Tags:existancelovemeaningPhilosophy NowpsychologySantiago Salvador