Why Do We Love?

Romantic love, beautiful and intoxicating, heartbreaking and soul- crushing, often all of that at the same

time, but why do we choose to put ourselves to that wringer?
Does love make our lives meaningful, or is it an escape from our loneliness and suffering? Is love a

disguise for our sexual desire or is it a biological trick to make us procreate ? Is it all we need? Do we

need it all?
If romantic love has a purpose, neither science and psychology has discovered it yet. But over the course

of history some of our respected philosophers have put forward some interesting theories. Love makes

us whole ,again. The ancient Greek philosopher Plato explored the idea that we love in order to become

complete. In his "symposium" he wrote about a dinner party, at which Aristophanes, a comic playwright,

regales the guests with the following story - humans were once creatures with four arms, four legs, and

two faces. One day, they angered the gods and Zeus sliced them all in two. Since then, every person has

been missing half of him or herself. Live is the longing to find a soulmate who will make us feel whole

again, or, least that's what Plato believed. Love tricks us into having babies. Much, much later, German

philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer maintained that love based in sexual desire was a voluptuous illusion.

He suggested that we love because our desires lead us to believe that another person will make us
happy but we are Sorely mistaken. Mature is tricking us into procreating, and the loving fusion we seek

is consummated in our children. Once our sexual desires are satisfied, we are thrown back into our
tormented existences and we succeed only in maintaining a species and perpetuating the cycle of
human drudgery. Love is escape from loneliness. According to the novel prize -winning British
philosopher Bertrand Russell, we love in order to quench our physical and psychological desires.
Humans are designed to procreate, but without the ecstasy of passionate love sex is unsatisfying. Our

fear of the cold, cruel world tempts us to build hard shells to protect and isolate ourselves. Love's

delight,intimacy,and warmth helps us overcome our fear of the world, escape our lonely shells and
engage more abundantly in life. Live enriches our whole being, making it the best thing in life. Love is

misleading affliction. But Buddha on the contrary proposed that we love because we are trying to
satisfy our base desires. Yet, our passionate cravings are defects, and attachments, even romantic love

are great source of suffering. Buddha discovered the eight- fold path, a sort of program extinguishing

the fires of desire so that we can reach Nirvana, an enlighten stage of peace, clarity, wisdom and
compassion. But all over the world has seen live flourish and nurture. Love is the desire to Integrate with

another and that it infuses our lives with meanings. Lovers support each other in discovering
themselves, reaching beyond themselves and enriching their lives beyond the world themselves. All of

the things end on a note we might not know the exact reason why we love but we still do .