(July 5, 2015 at 3:18 am)robvalue Wrote: I don't think love is a binary toggle, like people sometimes make it out to be. I think it's an umbrella term for certain levels of feelings towards people, and at what point you call his "love" will vary from person to person.
It will vary from person to person what will be called "love," but that is built into the definition of the term: "A strong feeling of affection." How strong does something have to be to be considered "strong?" Different people are going to arrive at different conclusions on that. Some will speak of "love" when other people would use the term "like." There isn't a precise amount of affection that distinguishes between liking someone and loving someone. (As if one could say, it takes 5 units of affection to be love, and so 4 units of affection is just liking the person!)
(July 5, 2015 at 3:18 am)robvalue Wrote: As a rule of thumb though, I'd ask you if you'd give your life to save the person. If yes, then that is love.
Isn't that really more of a relative value idea? After all, if one is already considering suicide, and then one gives one's life to save someone, one will not have to have much affection for the person one is saving, would one?
"A wise man ... proportions his belief to the evidence."
— David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Section X, Part I.
