Relation to others· Bonds

Ruse of the species

Axis: Nature of love — What lies at the heart of love: a lack, a gift, or something else?

Love is an illusion through which nature manipulates us: beneath the most exalted feeling operates . The individual believes they choose freely, when in fact they serve ends beyond themselves.

Who holds this position

Philosophers 1

Schopenhauerexplicit

The Metaphysics of Sexual Love, whose novelty he proudly claims, unmasks in passion the ruse of the : the illusion by which the genius of the species makes the individual, thinking he pursues his own happiness, serve the making of the next generation. Love as charity, for its part, belongs to compassion, and eros as lack is traced back to suffering.

The World as Will and Representation, vol. II, ch. 44, 'The Metaphysics of Sexual Love'

Foundations and implications

↑ What grounds it

A leaf — an application that grounds nothing further here.

↑ What grounds it

Nature and culture

If the human being is first of all a natural being driven by impulses shared with the species, love ceases to be a mystery and becomes the mask of the drive to reproduce. Naturalism grounds the "ruse of the species": Schopenhauer sees beneath the most exalted passion the will-to-live that uses lovers to perpetuate the species.

↓ What it implies

A leaf — an application that grounds nothing further here.