Here's another question

[cosmolinguist]

Is the difference between platonic love and romantic love a matter of kind or just of degree?

Comments

[angel-thane.livejournal.com]

I would posit that it only SEEMS that way.

Sex tends to confuse people. If they sleep with somebody, it tends to make them think that there's somethign more (likewise, many people confuse strong emotions of love for lust)

had you acted on your lust for those platonic friends, you might have looked at it differently, might have felt romantically inclined - had you allowed it to go further.

Of course though, there's more than just love+lust=romance. Its a complicated mixture, romance is. But just as there's more to bread than flour and yeast, the flour remains the same if you're using it for bread or for matzah. the results will be very different depending on the other ingredients, but the flour remains the same. So too with love. The results may be different depending on what else you put into the mix, but the love remains the same.

[etoilepb.livejournal.com]

I would posit that it only SEEMS that way.


When it's a matter of emotions, what else matters?

[angel-thane.livejournal.com]

Sometimes emotions (and hormones) cloud the truths of things.

[etoilepb.livejournal.com]

I'd argue there is only subjective truth with emotion. Either you feel something for someone, or you don't. Either you like broccoli, or you don't. Either you get pissed off at the people driving 20 miles an hour in front of you in the left lane, or you don't. None of those changes the personality of the other person, the molecular structure of broccoli, or the fact that someone in front of you is driving too slowly, but they change how they feature in your reality. And that's all there is, 24/7, for a whole lifetime for each of us.

[angel-thane.livejournal.com]

Ahh, but just because you FEEL that the person ahead of you is driving too slowly, doesn't mean that THEY ARE.

Just because in your opinion, broccoli is revolting, doesn't mean that it is.

And just because you feel that love isn't love isn't love, doesn't mean that that is the way.

(after all, if it were, then we're both right, there is no use of searching for truth and c'est la mourir)

[angel-thane.livejournal.com]

I hold very little faith in what 'most people' can do (naturally all the people who read your journal are exceptional though)

Things may not be able to be boiled down to irrefutable truths, but they can be brought down to most likely outcomes.

Or we could just argue subjectivity, but there's no point to this debate, love is whatever the individual chooses to feel it is, end of story. ;)

[etoilepb.livejournal.com]

Wait, I've got more actually.

I was thinking about your gin and tonic moment earlier. I think it's more like one is rum and one is vodka, if we're sticking with alcohol analogies. Both are hard liquor, but they taste different, smell different, are different. I'm not, nor have I ever been, denying that both are love. But they can still be different kinds.

[angel-thane.livejournal.com]

Ahh, but that's the catch. rum and vodka are both very different. Yes, they're both hard liquor, but that's no more than saying that love and hate are both strong emotions. They are, but they are entirely differently flavoured.

Platonic Love, and Romantic Love, OTOH, are not as differently flavoured as rum and vodka, I'm sure you'll agree. To the trained palate, they both have the same base (love) but with different ingredients added on. Not enough to make them different drinks (both are G&Ts) but enough that some might prefer the extra lemon.

Love is a complex formulae, more than just the single ingredient of a hard liquor. Love is a cocktail.

[kwakhed.livejournal.com]

actually, i'm not sure how far apart love and hate are, considering how involved with the subject you have to be emotionally... the very deep knowledge of what makes someone else tick serves as the basis for both... hate needs to be treated as being from the same column on the menu of emotional responses as platonic and romantic love, in my view...