
Love
A History
Ryan Patrick Hanley(Editor)
Oxford University Press Inc
Published on 21. August 2025
Book
Hardback
392 pages
978-0-19-753647-6 (ISBN)
Description
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.
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.
Reviews / Votes
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 *More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
New York
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Illustrations
13 b&w halftones
Dimensions
Height: 25 mm
Width: 140 mm
Thickness: 210 mm
Weight
519 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-19-753647-6 (9780197536476)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Person
Ryan Patrick Hanley is Professor of Political Science at Boston College. He is the author of several studies on Enlightenment political philosophy.
Editor
Professor of Political ScienceProfessor of Political Science, Boston College
Content
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
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


