Love and Loyalty
Just some thoughts in reply to a discussion I had with my friend Taneem, about loyalty and its connection to love (the discussion started with me talking about love in relation to a God and humanity or within humanity).
Loyalty is inherent to the concept love, but is not love.
Loyalty is an effect of love, but is not love. We can also use the term commitment.
So its an inherent effect, but is not the sole definer of love.
Essentially, i dont think its correct to state that love is or can be defined explicitly by loyalty.
People can be loyal to many things (nation, animals, ideologies, themselves, parents), but I don't think it would constitute being called "love" in all cases where loyalty is present. Love is more of an experiential concept than logical; one of those "things" difficult to encase in words.
The cause of love does not always stem from loyalty however, altho u may say it is the need for loyalty that drives people to love. Im not sure about that, but it may be motivation for some individuals, not all.
Do people love to gain someone's loyalty or to give their own to another person? Both cases happen and would depend on the individuals personality or needs. In the second case, loyalty is almost offered up as a gift, sometimes even unconditional to display the emotions the person holds within. In the first case, loyalty is the driving force behind the reason to find love. To find someone who will be loyal TO you.
We can look at another cause that is biological, however these reactions are not random, as love would occur without any reasonable connection that could be deductible by logic or pattern.
Which brings in the other likely reason that it is also stemmed in our intellectual interactions and is connected to the concept that we are self-aware.
We have the opportunity to experience love because of our awareness of self. Without that i don't think it would be possible.
Loyalty is inherent to the concept love, but is not love.
Loyalty is an effect of love, but is not love. We can also use the term commitment.
So its an inherent effect, but is not the sole definer of love.
Essentially, i dont think its correct to state that love is or can be defined explicitly by loyalty.
People can be loyal to many things (nation, animals, ideologies, themselves, parents), but I don't think it would constitute being called "love" in all cases where loyalty is present. Love is more of an experiential concept than logical; one of those "things" difficult to encase in words.
The cause of love does not always stem from loyalty however, altho u may say it is the need for loyalty that drives people to love. Im not sure about that, but it may be motivation for some individuals, not all.
Do people love to gain someone's loyalty or to give their own to another person? Both cases happen and would depend on the individuals personality or needs. In the second case, loyalty is almost offered up as a gift, sometimes even unconditional to display the emotions the person holds within. In the first case, loyalty is the driving force behind the reason to find love. To find someone who will be loyal TO you.
We can look at another cause that is biological, however these reactions are not random, as love would occur without any reasonable connection that could be deductible by logic or pattern.
Which brings in the other likely reason that it is also stemmed in our intellectual interactions and is connected to the concept that we are self-aware.
We have the opportunity to experience love because of our awareness of self. Without that i don't think it would be possible.
posted by fahd | 11:55 PM
1 Comments:
Hey Faraz.
Sorry i didn't make myself clear. The list was meant to show things where love and loyalty can exist OR just loyalty devoid of love. The difference being that im saying that love results from an intersection of different concepts (think: subset circles..with love in the centre of various circles). These circles could consist of many aspects of human psyche..such as adoration, empathy, sympathy (as u pointed out), a common goal, attraction (not just physical), an undescribable "bond", loyalty and probably many others to varying degrees. I am not trying to put a concrete definition to love, because there are multitudes of relationships and degrees of "love"..which is after all.. a very abstract concept. Which is why the circle thing might be a good analogy.
Therefore, there are situations where you may be loyal to a country, animal, parents or yourself, but the emotion and feeling of love may not be present. Basically, there would be other driving forces behind the loyalty because other "circles" may not be present. The person could be loyal to a country out of a sense of duty, but it could be a cold, passionateless and robotic action of loyalty. Same can be said of parents or yourself. There are definately ppl who are loyal to their parents, but might not have any love towards them (could be doing this out of social convention, self interest, sense of honor, feeling of "payback"..etc). Or ppl who would act for their best interest (i.e. show loyalty to themselves) but not have "love" for themselves..and maybe even hatred.
Hope that clears what i meant.
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