For most of my life, everyone I've ever talked to about love said that the opposite of love is hate.

On the outside, anyone would say that and agree with it. But let's take a deeper look into this.

I've had quite a few "relationships" and moments in my life where I thought I was in "love."
The opposite of love is not hate. Love and hate are very similar emotions, but there is a thin line between the difference of love and hate.
The opposite of love is indifference. It is not caring. It is not having any emotions for a person (or object) at all.

Love and hate are both emotions. When you love someone, you are attached and have feelings for that person. You think about that person, you talk about that person, you express your feelings about that person by your actions, etc. Same thing when you hate a person. If you hate a person, you will think about that person, you will talk about that person, show your feelings, etc.

Love and hate are both strong emotions for a person or object.
So being indifferent about someone is the opposite of love (and hate for that matter) If you honestly don't care about someone, you will not think about them, and you will not talk about them.
What feels worse right after a break up? When your ex constantly reminds you how much they hate you? Or when your ex ignores you, and acts like you do not exist and like they do not care about you at all.

Thoughts?

You have a point, and this is why the scripture says, that God prefers hot or cold over lukewarm. Callous indifference is the cause of a lot of evil on planet Earth. Hatred is so visceral and awful that it is easy to point at it as evil..but there is evil in the mundane. There is a banal kind of evil, which leads to all sorts of misery. The holocaust was possible not just because people hated jews so much as they didn't value them as human beings. They were able to devalue 6 million people to the point that people were comfortable with their mass extermination. That's more a callous indifference than blind hatred.

(September 18, 2011 at 3:48 am)Loading Please Wait Wrote: For most of my life, everyone I've ever talked to about love said that the opposite of love is hate.

On the outside, anyone would say that and agree with it. But let's take a deeper look into this.

I've had quite a few "relationships" and moments in my life where I thought I was in "love."
The opposite of love is not hate. Love and hate are very similar emotions, but there is a thin line between the difference of love and hate.
The opposite of love is indifference. It is not caring. It is not having any emotions for a person (or object) at all.

Love and hate are both emotions. When you love someone, you are attached and have feelings for that person. You think about that person, you talk about that person, you express your feelings about that person by your actions, etc. Same thing when you hate a person. If you hate a person, you will think about that person, you will talk about that person, show your feelings, etc.

Love and hate are both strong emotions for a person or object.
So being indifferent about someone is the opposite of love (and hate for that matter) If you honestly don't care about someone, you will not think about them, and you will not talk about them.
What feels worse right after a break up? When your ex constantly reminds you how much they hate you? Or when your ex ignores you, and acts like you do not exist and like they do not care about you at all.

Thoughts?

(September 18, 2011 at 3:48 am)Loading Please Wait Wrote: I've had quite a few "relationships" and moments in my life where I thought I was in "love."
The opposite of love is not hate. Love and hate are very similar emotions, but there is a thin line between the difference of love and hate.
The opposite of love is indifference. It is not caring. It is not having any emotions for a person (or object) at all.

Nah, you are seeing the wrong context, love is the opposite of hate, because by your logic indefference would be the oppsite of hate, the truth is that indifference or apathy is the middle ground.

Like all emotional connections it's a bar with various degrees depending how you are connected to it, from positive feeling you relate to it or the negative feelings other might relate to them.

Love
-
Apathy
-
Hate

(September 18, 2011 at 10:29 am)Ashendant Wrote: Nah, you are seeing the wrong context, love is the opposite of hate, because by your logic indefference would be the oppsite of hate, the truth is that indifference or apathy is the middle ground.

Tell that to the boyfriend/girlfriend who screams and goes crazy saying "I hate you, I wish you would die! I HATE YOU MORE THAN EVERYTHING!" and then 3 hours later calls up their boyfriend/girlfriend telling them how much they love them and never want to be without them again.

The opposite of caring for someone and wanting to be with someone (love) is
not caring and not wanting to be with someone (indifference or apathy).

Love and hate are both very strong emotions for someone.

Opposite of having feelings (love/hate)? No feelings. (indifference/apathy)

Love often masquerades as hate is a more correct argument. Actual hate IS the opposite of a love, the sticky part is that when someone is burned by one that they love or the feelings turn out not to be mutual, the one in love will fool themselves into believing they hate the person instead of dealing with the fact that they do love the person. That is what leads to the kooky antics of spurned lovers.

If you truely hated a person you would do everything in your power to harm them within the confines of the law, or at least what you thought you could get away with. Apathy is more effective in injuring someone who has spurned you though, that I would agree. People don't typically make clean breaks so both parties probably harbor feelings for the other one so apathy would be more damaging, but that doesn't make it opposite of love.

I think that fear is the actual opposite of love, and that hatred is an offshoot of fear.

(September 18, 2011 at 6:03 pm)Epimethean Wrote: I think that fear is the actual opposite of love, and that hatred is an offshoot of fear.

More like:
Agape - Eros - Philia - Storge - Apathy - Mistrust - Repulsion - Phobia - Hatred

The greek were right they just forgot the negative part (or i don't know about it)

Everything in the human mind is a balanced bar

Sorry, but agape is not as strong as eros, and misos is always a byproduct of phobos.

Quote:For most of my life, everyone I've ever talked to about love said that the opposite of love is hate.

At 20 I 'fell in love' for the first time. At 63 I'm still not sure what it is,only that it was wonderful at the time and agonising when it ended. I have never hated anyone I loved,except my ex wife , Crune Punt. (may her tits fall off)

I have come to believe that the opposite of love is indifference. That applies to all the forms the Greeks described; Eros ( carnal) Phileo (brotherly) Agape (love of the Gods) Storge (natural affection such as parent for child or for a kitty))

I agree. The opposite of love is certainly indifference, though hate is very unlike love, apart from the passion of it. When it is best to not be with someone you love, what do you hope for? I would think you do not hope to hate them. You hope that you will become indifferent to them and be free of whatever pain you feel from the end of a relationship with someone you love.