Overview

Lovers know that love is both vast and intense. This would seem to make it resistant to philosophical or rational analysis. Yet love's vastness and intensity are what carry it into all spheres of our lives--ethical, political, spiritual, physical. As a result, considerations of what it means to love and to be loved, and what is worth loving and worth being, are inextricable from our most deeply-held commitments in ethics, politics, religion, and metaphysics. Love is impossible then for philosophers to ignore--which explains, at least in part, why love has been a central concept of philosophical inquiry over the last several millennia, in the west and beyond.The aim of this volume is twofold. First, it chronicles the most significant moments in this concept's long and remarkable evolutionary life, ranging from ancient Hebrew and Greek and Christian conceptions of love to those advanced by thinkers from Kierkegaard and Nietzsche and Levinas. Second, in addition to profiling these discrete historical moments, this volume also aims to tell an interconnected story, such that those who read it cover-to-cover might be able to walk away with a sense of the larger arc of its historical evolution, and specifically the ways in which love's horizons shifted from the transcendent to the immanent over the course of its history. Like other volumes in the series, the book is interspersed with short reflection chapters that touch on an array of people and subjects including Martin Luther King, Jr., Gian Lorenzo Bernini, and Platonic love poetry, which supplement the work's philosophical discussions.

Full Product Details

Author:   Ryan Patrick Hanley (Professor of Political Science, Professor of Political Science, Boston College)
Publisher:   Oxford University Press Inc
Imprint:   Oxford University Press Inc
Dimensions:   Width: 14.00cm , Height: 21.00cm , Length: 2.50cm
Weight:   0.519kg
ISBN:  

9780197536476

ISBN 10:   0197536476
Pages:   392
Publication Date:   21 August 2025
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   To order  
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Table of Contents

Series Editor's Foreword Introduction by Ryan Patrick Hanley 1. Love, Human and Divine in the Hebrew Bible and Judaic Tradition by Lenn E. Goodman 2. Love in Plato and Aristotle by Frisbee Sheffield Reflection: Platonic Love Poetry by Erik Gray 3. Love in the Christian Tradition by David McPherson 4. Love in Islamic Philosophy by William Chittick Reflection: Love That Moves: Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio by Akash Kumar 5. A Metaphysical Basis for Love? Descartes, Spinoza, and Conway by Patrick Frierson Reflection: Love, Sculpture, and Gian Lorenzo Bernini by Ingrid Rowland 6. Love in Kant and the Enlightenment by Melissa Fahmy 7. Beyond the Realms of Dream That Fleeting Shade by Eve Grace Reflection: Love in Jane Austen's Novels by Albert Rivero 8. Kierkegaard's Concept of Love by Sharon Krishek Reflection: The Concept of Love in Modern Psychology by Robert Sternberg 9. Love and Desire in Nietzsche and Levinas by Fiona Ellis Reflection: Love as Social Force: Martin Luther King, Jr. by Andre Willis

Reviews

This volume, edited by Hanley (Boston College), is a wonderful presentation of the important moments in that philosophical history, as told by some of the most influential scholars in the field. This rigorous but accessible book is meant for scholars and yet is engaging for non-specialists. Each chapter can stand on its own, but the book as a whole traces a compelling historical arc of philosophical approaches to love. * J. A. Simmons, Choice *

Author Information

Ryan Patrick Hanley is Professor of Political Science at Boston College. He is the author of several studies on Enlightenment political philosophy.

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