From: holmes@opal.idbsu.edu (Randall Holmes)
Subject: Re: WHAT IS LOVE?
Organization: Boise State University Math Dept.
Date: Fri, 28 Aug 1992 22:20:32 GMT

In article <1992Aug25.103233.21740@abo.fi> CBURMAN@finabo.abo.fi () writes:
>In <exukjb.91.714664967@exu.ericsson.se> exukjb@exu.ericsson.se writes:
>>In article <1992Aug21.182031.18858@abo.fi> CBURMAN@finabo.abo.fi () writes:
>>>In article <something.something> Peter Cash writes:
>>>>>In article <403@thunder.LakeheadU.Ca> skataria@thunder.LakeheadU.Ca
>>>>>(skataria) writes:
>>>>> WHAT IS LOVE?
>>>>> Can somebody give me a convincing answer?
>
><...purged...>
>
>>                                      ... I've found much of interest in Stuart Hampshire's 
>>writings, esp. his thesis that some of our states of mind are constituted by 
>>our ability to describe them and by making certain choices.  Consider, 'Am I 
>>in love with him, doctor?' This question assumes that love is some kind of 
>>independently discriminable item in consciousness which I need only to look 
>>for to see if it's there.  But, acc. to Hampshire, whether I am in that 
>>state is primarily a question of whether I have made a decision to feel or 
>>value in a certain way, and whether I shall continue in it. It is like, 'Do 
>>I believe that p?' where one wants to know, not whether the evidence for p 
>>is sufficient to warrant belief, but whether one in fact does have this 
>>belief.  
>
>Hampshire's point is, I take it (long time since I last read him too),
>to get rid of the idea that things like love, respect, hate, contempt,
>etc. are 'merely' feelings (some kind of inner sensations, or whatever),
>and that seems to me an important thing to do. 

Exactly!!!  I don't think that love is actually a feeling at all.  It
is a _policy_.  So is hate.

(But this is not to say
>that there isn't room for all kinds of sensations too. The point is that
>love doesn't consist in having certain feelings.) I'm uneasy about
>talking of 'a decision to feel or value',

I don't think one _can_ "decide to feel"; one might have more freedom
to decide to value, but I'm also dubious about that.

 but if I understand this
>correctly, Hampshire wants to point to the aspect of an undertaking
>inherent in love.(O.K. Bouwsma thinks of (religious) faith in a similar
>way. Maybe Kierkegaard too. I always felt that this is why faith and
>love seem so closely connected.)

Faith is also a _policy_ (often but not always a stupid one), not a
feeling.


>
>I don't see why the question 'Am I in love?' should assume some
>independently discriminable items in consciousness (whatever that
>means), however. Maybe the doctor's patient is a philosopher? (Hm, maybe
>you merely meant that the question looks like 'Is it cancer, doctor?')
>
>>In general, you can't sensibly ask this latter type of question, 
>>for trying to decide whether you believe that p can only mean trying to 
>>decide whether you *shall* believe p or continue believing p.

I don't think that one can decide what one believes, either (in the
sense of an act of will).

 So the 
>>question, "Am I in love?" is really to be interpreted as a request for 
>>help in deciding what one's feelings are to be, not what they are.

Again, when does one ever _decide_ what one's feelings are?

>
>I still don't like that 'deciding what to feel' business... Are you sure
>that 'Am I in love?' is like 'Do I believe that p?' I think we need a
>context for the question. (The more I think about this, the odder the
>question seems. Who asks it? When? What sort of answers might satisfy him? 
>A simple 'yes' or 'no'?)
>
>
>>------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>Kenny Bell                          *        Welcome to Mind Wars
>>Ericsson Network Systems, Inc       *        Abstract Arts BBS 386-7907
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>>------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
>Chris Burman, cburman@abo.fi







-- 
The opinions expressed		|     --Sincerely,
above are not the "official"	|     M. Randall Holmes
opinions of any person		|     Math. Dept., Boise State Univ.
or institution.			|     holmes@opal.idbsu.edu
Newsgroups: sci.philosophy.meta