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As noted early on in our discussion, love, as a subjective and internal state, is hard to define objectively. Not only can love take on various forms (e.g. romantic love, companionate love), but as Natsu points out, definitions/understandings of “love” can vary across cultures. Since defining love is done post-hoc, in an attempt to apply language to a set of internal feelings to which we have no direct conscious access, it makes sense that we would arrive at more than a singular definition/understanding. However, despite the variations between definitions of love, I believe there exists a general category of feelings (that we may call love) that exist prior to definition, which are commonly experienced amongst the majority of humanity. The existence of such a general category of feelings is suggested by our ability to empathetically understand what someone means when they say they are in love or that they love their friend.

I would like to extend this discussion to suggest that the generality of a category of feelings which constitute “love” is supported by its evolutionary adaptiveness. That is, if “love” has been selected for amongst humans, it logically follows the majority of humans would experience the feelings associated with love. So here we must ask if “love” could be shown to be evolutionarily favorable. Throughout this forum discussion the evolutionary adaptiveness of love has been challenged (Jenna) and supported (Danielle, Kara), and I would like to support the possibility of the evolutionary advantage of love.

As we have briefly touched on, emotions may play a critical role in the “rational” processes such as decision-making. According to Demasio’s Somatic-Marker Hypothesis, emotionally salient representations that have been paired with events from one’s past are employed to increase the efficiency of decision-making by ruling out those decisions that would likely result in negative feelings and highlighting those that would result in positive feelings. Love, which gives rise to positive feelings (i.e. dopamine reward) can thus serve as an influential guide in the decision-making process. That is, by feeling love towards one’s family and friends, one would likely arrive at decisions to assist these people more readily and rapidly. Feelings of love towards between a mother and child could allow to mother to respond to her child’s needs (e.g. saving the child from a predator at the risk of one’s own safety) without having to take time to consciously deliberate between the pros and cons of doing so. Feelings of love allow one to quickly and non-consciously decide to assist those individuals who play important roles in one’s own life and who contribute to one’s survival/the survival of one’s genetic lineage. For this reason it seems that love offers an evolutionary advantage.