1. José Ortega y Gasset on Love 1883 - 1955

2. A Preliminary Note on the Distinction Between “Amar” and “Querer”

3. Love and Desire Desire: The need to possess the object, to have the object gravitate towards the self. Solely negative and macroscopic. Love: A separation of the self from itself in gravitating towards the other. A stake in the other’s existence (Pfänder). Positive and microscopic.

4. Spinoza’s Misunderstanding Now if you intend to show me disdain Don’t you know it all the more enraptures me? For even so I still remain Your lover in captivity Leonard Cohen, “Leaving Green Sleeves” “I thank you from the bottom of my heart for the desperation you have caused me, and I despise the tranquility in which I lived before I knew you.” Mariana Alcoforado, Letters of a Portuguese Nun

5. Choice and the (True) Self Reason, discourse, and the will conceal (and are used to conceal) the true, primitive self. Unlike desire – which is a manifestation of instinct – love is a(n unintended) manifestation of this true self. – Attraction v. Interest “Love is essentially choice.”

6. The Evolving Self and Its (Evolving) Love Affairs How do we account for the fact that we love more than once? The true self evolves slowly throughout our lives. Thus, each “true” love in our lives represents a new stage of selfhood. – Life consists of a few (2-4) major changes – “Is it not suggestive that the number of true loves a normal man undergoes is almost always of a similar amount: two, three?”

7. Love and Society Insofar as love is a manifestation of the true self, there is a necessary relationship between a society’s loves and its general character.

8. Notable Issues (Quasi-)determinism Misogyny