Historical Essay about Love (review on a book «Philosophy of Love: A Partial Summing-Up» by I. Singer)

Abstract

Irving Singer (1925–2015), a former professor of philosophy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, author of more than twenty scientific books. “Philosophy of love” is not his first book devoted to the study of various aspects of love.
Singer begins his study from the times of antiquity, examines the views of Plato, considering the Greek concept of Eros and the Christian concept of love, Agape, not only confronting them, but making the attempt “to synthesize”. He writes about courtly love, analyses the views of Freud, engaging in polemics with him, because the latter, in the author’s opinion, mistakenly considered the foundation of love an overestimation of the object of passion, and therefore regard the love as illusion and self-deception.
Presenting the views of Nietzsche, Singer touch upon the estimation of love by existentialists, in particular J.-P. Sartre. The author considers himself as the successor of the ideas of the American philosophers-pragmatists such as William James, John. Dewey and “neoplatonic” John. Santayana.
He further traces the connection between love and creativity, examining the role of creativity in our experience. This is the central problem for traditional thoughts about love, whether love for God, the Christian Agape, or any other form of human love. Singer treats a gift of love as the all-pervading component of human creativity.
The future of the philosophy of love Singer sees in combination of Sciences and the Humanities. In the present reality must arise new forms of art and new branches of science that would be able to deal with the many unresolved issues in the area.