Everyone wants love, but no one can tell you exactly what love is. In this episode, we deep dive into seven philosophical perspectives on love, ranging from the Ancient Greeks to the existentialists. If you’re curious whether Plato thought soulmates were real or Kierkegaard would tell you to text your ex, this episode is for you. 

EPISODE OUTLINE 

00:00 Intro (the philosophy of love)

03:19 What even is love? (hypotheticals on love)

07:07 Ancient Greek philosophy on love 

07:35 Origins of the concept of soulmates (Plato’s The Symposium)

09:03 Socrates’ ladder of love 

13:03 Enlightenment thinkers on love 

13:15 Love as social performance (Rousseau)

13:58 Rousseau’s two types of self love 

15:22 How self love affects how you love others

17:31 The humanity formula (Kant)   

19:49 Practical vs. passionate love (Kant)

22:07 Love as a trick (Schopenhauer)

24:04 Why do opposites attract? (Schopenhauer)

24:28 Is love just biological encouragement to reproduce? (Schopenhauer)

26:06 Existentialists on love

26:14 The tension between love and freedom of choice (Sartre)

27:50 Love as an objectifying force (Sartre)

30:32 Jean Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir’s non-monogamous love story 

31:40 The relationship between love and possession (de Beauvoir) 

33:06 How your fear of being seen impacts your ability to give and receive love (Sartre, Doestoevsky, de Beauvoir) 

36:54 Kierkegaard’s Works of Love 

37:22 Unreasonable standards in love (Kierkegaard)

42:24 Lightning round recap

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE

• Plato, The Symposium (c. 385–370 BCE)
• Jean-Jacques Rousseau, The Social Contract (1762)
• Immanuel Kant, Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals (1785)
• Immanuel Kant, The Metaphysics of Morals (1797)
• Arthur Schopenhauer, The World as Will and Representation (1818)
• Søren Kierkegaard, Works of Love (1847)
• Fyodor Dostoevsky, Notes from Underground (1864)
• Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness (1943)
• Jean-Paul Sartre, No Exit (1944)
• Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex (1949)
• Gordon Marino, The Existentialist’s Survival Guide (2018)

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