The Philosophy of Falling in Love

Amor Sacro e Amor Profano (Sacred and Profane Love) c.1514

Titian

Galleria Borghese, Rome

Philosophy highlights things that give meaning to our lives. Socrates' enduring quest for living the good life liberates the mind toward revelations on these things, including the intimate feelings upon which they may be based, feelings that transform the entity into a collective, for falling in love is not a solitary experience; it is an experience that simultaneously includes others.

Falling in love calls upon the Roman goddess Venus, whose functions encompass love, beauty, intimate relations, fertility and prosperity. She is the embodiment of the Neoplatonic concept of sacred love. Sacred love embodies the notion of 'beyond being' (book VI of the Republic). In Plato's famous analogy of the Sun, he says that the Good is beyond being (ἐπέκεινα τῆς οὐσίας) in power and dignity.

Titian's painting depicts this concept. Dignity, for a woman, resides in her being protected, i.e., clothed. While power resides in her 'being', in her liberation of form from limited human constraints in reasoning.

Venus, the mother of the Roman people, sits lovingly beside the woman (dressed in white) who has fallen in love. This transformation of state goes from being dignified and seemingly pure (white wedding dress) toward being liberated and free from the predominantly human characteristic of wearing clothing, that state which arises from our functional need of protection from the elements.

When falling in love, an individual transforms themselves from one form of love to the other. From the notion of love based on convention and social norms toward the feeling of being in love, a release from a state or situation that limits freedom of thought or behavior. This flourishing or sense of abundance overflows much like how a fountain of love overflows upon those who partake of it.

Triumph of Cupid (1719)

Carlo Cignani (1628-1719)

Reaching inside the sacred Fountain of Venus is an allegory for falling in love. Cupid, our love totem, reaches inside the fountain symbolizing, in Titian's dreamlike landscape painting, our desire to have that which is set apart and forbidden (Émile Durkheim on sacred things).

Walter Friedländer outlined similarities between the painting and Francesco Colonna's Hyperotomachia Poliphili, proposing that the two figures represented Polia and Venere, the two female characters in the 1499 romance where Poliphilo pursues his love Polia through a dreamlike landscape, and is, seemingly, at last reconciled with her by the Fountain of Venus. This story is easily interpreted as more conquering love, it is an allegory for falling in love, for the journey or transformation that occurs when one is struck by Cupid's arrow.

Falling in love is the dream of love personified. François Rabelais, in The Histories of Gargantua and Pantagruel (1532-34) wrote: "Far otherwise did heretofore the sages of Egypt, when they wrote by letters, which they called hieroglyphics, which none understood who were not skilled in the virtue, properly, and nature of things represented by them. Of which Orus Apollon hath in Greek composed two books, and Polyphilus, in his Dream of Love, set down more..." (Book 1, Ch. 9).

Philosophically speaking, falling in love is a quest for the dream of love. It is the search for the grandiose, a desire to "reach toward" that resplendent magnificence, and a finding or liberating of it (depicted in the fountain spilling forth) within oneself. Metaphysically speaking, it is a physical transformation whereby white light is illuminated.

In Titian's painting, we see the transformation of white being made lucid, clear, and plainly visible in a nude Venus. Not only does this vision occur in a dreamlike landscape, but the dreamlike landscape is also a natural place, a return to "home" which is often how those who have fallen in love describe the experience of being in the presence of their beloved.

Falling in love as a return home references our exile from Ithaca, that place in the Greek conception of a hierarchical world in which everyone, in accordance with his degree of excellence, has a place assigned to him, being torn away from this 'natural place' is a form of suffering and injustice, just as a return home is a positive good connected with the restoration of the harmony of the cosmos.

This separation between home and being exiled is depicted in the distance between the dressed Aphrodite Pandemos (left) and the nude Aphrodite Urania. Aphrodite Pandemos is that goddess of low sensual pleasures, whereas Aphrodite Urania is "the heavenly Aphrodite".

The unspoiled, harmonious wilderness in the background of this painting is Arcadia, the home of the god Pan (in Greek mythology), who is associated with the mother goddess. In Pindar's Pythian Ode iii. 78, Pindar, the Ancient Greek lyric poet from Thebes, refers to virgins worshipping Cybele and Pan near the poet's house in Boeotia. Titian's painting could also be an allegory for fortune and fate, with Cupid representing "the child of Zeus...Fortune") [C.M.Bowra, Pindar, page 63; fr. 63.15–20].

Pindar revised traditional mythos so as not to diminish the dignity and majesty of the gods. This painting may also be a subtle example, perhaps, of Pinder's approach to the omniscience of the gods with its elegant compliment: mortals (dressed in white).

Being descendants of divine unions, privilege mortals sit along side their mythical heroes, with cupid serving as an intermediate group between the gods and men, sympathetic to human ambitions. Thus, viewing this painting as an ethical issue, we do not judge the gods, we merely strive to experience their presence, away from our ordinary human experience. Indeed, this paining represents the finest breeds of humanity seated next to divine passions.

"For Pindar a mortal woman who is loved by a god is an outstanding lesson in divine favors handsomely bestowed." [Gilbert Highet, The Classical Tradition, Oxford University Press (1949), p. 225]

Falling in love denotes a divine union. In this painting Titian's elusiveness is telling his audience that he will not talk of it ("silence is a man's wisest counsel")

[New Nemean Odes 5.14-18. The hushed reference to Phocus's murder is cited and translated by C.M. Bowra, Pindar, pages 67-8: I am shy of speaking of a huge risk / Hazarded not in right, / How they left the famous island, / And what fate drove strong men from the Vineland. / I shall halt. Truth does not always / Gain more if unflinching / She reveals her face; / And silence is often a man's wisest counsel.]

Here, Titian depicts our readiness to shape traditional mythos to fit the occasion.

Venus serves as an oracle to a prophet, commemorating a human victory - claiming love for oneself. Falling in love is that claim upon that which initially eludes us, that sentiment of which the maidens sing:

ἐμὲ δὲ πρέπει παρθενήια μὲν φρονεῖν
γλώσσᾳ τε λέγεσθαι.

I must think maidenly thoughts

And utter them with my tongue

The dithyrambs in honor of Dionysus, the god of wine and fertility, flow forth from this painting, an allegory of that sentiment which sings forth from our bosom when we fall in love. Love's ballads capture the grandeur of the moment of victory, of Poliphilo pursuing and ultimately reconciling with his love Polia in Titian's landscape. 

Titian's Renaissance style sets the tone for rebirth, a rekindling of ancient myths that evoke the gods or the Muses. Praise goes to the victor, narrated by myth, the central figure (left) exemplifies a mortal, who transformed, gains an audience with the world of the gods. Titian's Amor Sacro e Amor Profano (Sacred and Profane Love) represents the grand sentiment associated with falling in love, that unfolding of the sacred against a background of symbolic elements such as the sea, darkness, fire from the bosom, mountains, and the privileged moral predicament (depicted the castle). 

King of Syracuse, delighting in horses; and his fame shines

among strong men where Lydian Pelops went to dwell,

Pelops that he who clips the earth with his great strength,

Poseidon, loved when Klotho lifted him out

of the clean cauldron, his shoulder gleaming ivory.

Great marvels in truth are these, but tales

told and overlaid with elaboration of lies

amaze men's wits against the true word.

The Odes of Pindar

Cupid's shoulder gleams ivory. Poseidon, the "God of the Sea" is called upon; venerated at Pylos and Thebes in pre-Olympian Bronze Age Greece as a chief deity, Poseidon was integrated into the Olympian gods as the brother of Zeus and Hades (Mount Olympus depicted above left in the landscape). The conflict between Hades and Persephone represents the division between mortals and gods. Pelops, whose cult developed into the founding myth of the Olympic games, represents love's games. Cupid leans over the Fountain of Venus, an allegory for the holy grail or cauldron from which the sacred can be touched. 

Great marvels are depicted in Titian's painting as great marvels are discovered in the experience of falling in love. The wedding between Nicolò Aurelio and Laura Bagarotto in 1514 (the Aurelio family coat of arms is depicted on the sarcophagus) represents a courtship. 

Hippodamia with Pelops in a racing chariot

Hippodamia's father, King Oenomaus of Pisa, was fearful of a prophecy that claimed he would be killed by his son-in-law. So when suitors arrived, he told them they could marry his daughter only if they defeated him a chariot race, and if they lost, they would be executed.

Pelops, son of King Tantalus of Lydia, came to ask for Hippodamia's hand in marriage and prepared to race Oenomaus. Worried about losing, Pelops went to the seaside (depicted on the right side of the painting) and invoked Poseidon, his former lover. Reminding Poseidon of their love ("Aphrodite's sweet gifts"), he asked Poseidon for help. Smiling, Poseidon caused a chariot drawn by winged horses to appear.

Behind Laura Bagarotto is two parts of lighted sky, which could be seen as wing-shaped. On the sarcophagus (on the right) a suitor is being killed while a young maiden, similar to Venus, stands aghast in the background. Flowing from the fountain is Poseidon's blessings.

Titian's Amor Sacro e Amor Profano (Sacred and Profane Love) can be seen as an allegory for falling in love, for the philosophies that illuminate the enormous experience of being 'touched by love'. Falling in love transcends the human predicament and elevates it toward the nature of love, itself (Venus). Love transcends theories of human nature, desire, ethics, and so on.

Philosophically speaking, love logically begins with questions concerning its nature, which is where Titian takes us in his allegory of falling in love. Implied here is that love has a "nature," that it cannot be described in rational or meaningful propositions, only in sentiment. The sentiment evoked in Titian's painting is one that presents a metaphysical and epistemological argument, that love ejects us from our reason; but, on the other hand, it delivers us to the realm of of the gods.

In English, the word "love," which is derived from Germanic forms of the Sanskrit lubh (desire), is broadly referenced in our desire to be god-like in nature. Our natural attraction to love, toward the feelings experience in falling in love, stems from this desire (eros, philia, and agape).

Eros refers to that part of love that inspires passion, an intense desire for something often referred to as erotic desire (Aphrodite Pandemos). Aristotle's Philia, by contrast, entails a fondness and appreciation of the other (Cupid's kindness toward mortals). Agape refers to the paternal love of the gods for humanity (Venus). All three elements of love (the Platonic-Socratic maintains that love we generate for beauty on this earth can never be truly satisfied until we die [sarcophagus]; but in the meantime we should aspire beyond the particular stimulating image in front of us to the contemplation of beauty itself) are presented in Titian's painting.

Falling in love invokes the philosophy of language, of the relevance of meanings, and also provides us with a knowable, comprehensible, and describable understanding of the nature of the gods.

Three little words: "I love you" warrant no further intellectual intrusion. Love is liberated and free and brings us face to face with the gods as an allegory for the divine within.

If love possesses a nature, it is one that is identifiable only in personal expression with it. To be properly understood, one must feel love. Perhaps this prerequisite for understanding love in order recognize its nature is why Titian's painting has long since eluded scholars.

Ruminating on the nature of falling in love coupled with the experience of falling in love opens our eyes to seeing it depicted elsewhere.

On Justice

Pindar states: 

Can I by justice or by crooked ways of deceit ascend a loftier tower which may be a fortress to me all my days?

The answer to this question concerns the notion of justice. What conclusions are we to draw from the results of leading a just life -vs- an unjust life, and which life, the just one or the unjust one, yields the most pleasurable, worldly outcome? 

This question has plagued the world's inhabitants for centuries. 

Lobby to Main Reading Room. Government mural by Elihu Vedder. 

Library of Congress Thomas Jefferson Building, Washington, D.C.

Is there profit to be found in being good... in being just... in philanthropic or benevolent pursuits? What if one puts these pursuits over their own well-being? Is the act of putting one's own well-being above philanthropic gestures a selfish act, or is it merely as aspect of living well, such as putting on one's own mask prior to helping another? 

In theorizing whether one reaches a loftier, more pleasurable state of living by being just or unjust in their actions, I must invariably draw from my own life choices if I wish to find a clearer understanding of how I perceive and respond to both concepts ~ justice and injustice ~ and how those concepts affect my thoughts, and most importantly, my behavior and actions. 

To claim that a person is just or unjust is to assume that we have insight into their personal, subjective personhood. Rather than assume this is possible, I find it easier to simply comment on an individual person's behavior or actions, or lack thereof, when describing the nature of justice. 

If we relate justice to consequences, such as positive or negative ones associated with helping someone when there is no personal benefit to do so, we reduce justice to an expenditure of time, effort, or resources. 

No wonder people question the nature of justice. 

The world in which we live is dictated largely in part by the resources at our disposal. Most everyone has a specific way or manner about them, a potential that can be harnessed into a resource, but not everyone is equally distributed with the resources that would more easily yield a healthy, productive world citizen who possesses knowledge of themselves, knowledge of the world, and has the capacity to utilize their resources in a way that improves or beautifies the environment we all inhabit. 

Sometimes a person is of low intelligence or low drive and lacks an interest in contributing to the common good, sometimes a person has a high intelligence and high energetic drive, but lacks the financial resources to contribute to the common good, and the maldistribution continues. 

Given that resources are not equally distributed among all the world's inhabitants, one must take what they are given and do their best to achieve a state of equilibrium, in terms of meeting their physical needs, before endeavoring to help others. 

Of course, there are those who do not have all of their physical needs met, and might even be homeless, and yet they find a way to write or create something meaningful for others that instantly improves their financial or physical circumstances. While the latter example does happen, it is not always the norm. 

It is to the norm that we look when it comes to expounding on whether justice vs injustice serves a better means to achieve worldly success (and maybe even happiness). As the examples above indicate, there are an endless number of examples on how resources are and are not distributed equally among people, thus I return to my own life for study and reflection. 

Not being born into a life of Royal obligations, into a life of global philanthropic concerns, or into a life of cultural understanding beyond what personal preferences my family held on the subject cultural contribution, my early life could be described as provincial. How my interests grew in complexity is in part due to sheer luck as well as to the resources I did possess, which was an inheritance of physical allure, what was described to me as a regal presence, an affable, good-natured disposition, and a quickness of wit and intellect that allowed me to maintain volumes of information in my working memory whilst simultaneously being able to draw upon deeper, more philosophical considerations that, for better or worse, made me and others around me think twice about their thoughts and actions. 

While not possessing an abundance of worldly resources upon which to embark a lifetime of experiences, I did possess the above-mentioned natural resources that, once out in the world, enabled me to support myself and others, as well as learn and grow and reach toward greater heights as a result. Given enough time, these results were exponential in their growth to the point that questions of justice and injustice came into my conscious awareness. 

My family might tell you that I exercised a number of philanthropic-minded gestures throughout childhood and young adulthood, but in my mind, beyond building companies and offering employment to those seeking it, my first truly philanthropic gesture was directed toward the inhabitants of a very poor, desolate region in the middle of the Mexican desert, a place through which I drove returning from a shopping trip in the United States. 

As we drove along the freeway, I noticed people out begging along the roadside. At the time I didn't understand why they were out "in the middle of nowhere" and was told that they lived in the mountains and came down to the roadside in the winter to beg for food. 

The moment I heard this my heart sank and I asked the driver to pull over so I could give them some food and extra clothing. I was nearly ripped from the car and we had to speed off for our own protection, not because they wished to hurt me, but because they were so very desperate for resources.

Immediately upon returning to Mexico City, with the aid of some generous friends, we arranged for a delivery truck to return with food, blankets, and toys for the kids. Each year thereafter we sent a truck with much-needed supplies.

These actions might be considered generous, but are they just? What is just about leaving these people out in this barren region to fend for themselves? What is just about some individuals having more resources than others? 

Justice seems to me like a manmade concept more than a natural one. If justice were natural, we would all be endowed with the same level of physical beauty, the same strength and physical stamina, the same talents and abilities, and the same cognitive abilities to help us circumvent life's challenges. 

Promoting justice is a bit Robinhoodish, taking from the rich to give to the poor. Whether or not the poor are deserving beyond their being poor is an entirely different matter. 

When it comes right down to it, most of us would much rather do the giving than the receiving, which perhaps is nature's way of correcting injustice. 

Returning full-circle to the question of whether or not it is better to live an unjust life, taking or keeping for oneself as many resources as possible so that one might erect an Ivory Tower for oneself, or whether it is best to redistribute those resources among our fellow citizens is perhaps a matter of preference. 

Drawing from my own life, in which I have chosen the latter, I can only say that while it feels wonderful to feast, it doesn't feel right to feast alone. 

Perhaps that is what Marie-Antoinette meant when she was misquoted as saying, "Let them eat cake". Perhaps she merely wished for everyone to join her in enjoying cake and was not as informed as she could have been about the state of affairs in France given that she had grown up in an Ivory Tower. When you don't go outside, you don't really know what's going on... and can only trust that those who are supposed to manage such things are doing so for the benefit of all the nation's citizens. Had she known they did not have bread, she would have shared her cake without hesitation. Not out of a sense of justice, but from the generosity of heart that is required to combat injustice. 

இڿڰۣ