Exceptional love?

John Drummond

pp. 51-69

in: Marta Ubiali, Maren Wehrle (eds), Feeling and value, willing and action, Berlin, Springer, 2015

Abstract

James Hart has recently developed a sophisticated view of the exceptional character of love among the emotions as targeting "the most inward center" of the Other apart from any of her distinguishing attributes. This paper argues, against Hart, for three claims: (1) the target of love is not the propertyless ipseity of the Other but the concrete person over time; (2) love of a particular person, while not founded on her distinguishing attributes in the sense that those attributes justify my love, nevertheless presupposes certain attributes that motivate the loving attitude and that the relevant attributes vary according to the type of love in question; and (3) agapic love, which appears to be Hart's model and ideal for love, might be the only kind of love that is not merely motivated by certain attributes but justified by them as well.