Nature of Love Volume 2

<b>An examination of ideas and ideals of medieval courtly love and the transition into later Romantic love analyzing the work of Dante Shakespeare and Schopenhauer among many others.</b><p><i>Review</i>) monumental (<i>Boston Globe</i>) one of the major works of philosophy in our century (<i>Nous</i>) wise and magisterial (<i>Times Literary Supplement</i>) and a masterpiece of critical thinking [that] is a timely eloquent and scrupulous account of what after all still makes the world go round (<i>Christian Science Monitor</i>). </p><p>In the second volume Singer studies the ideas and ideals of medieval courtly love and nineteenth-century Romantic love as well as the transition between these two perspectives. According to the traditions of courtly love in the twelfth century and thereafter not only God but also human beings in themselves are capable of authentic love. The pursuit of love between man and woman was seen as a splendid ideal that ennobles both the lover and the beloved. It was something more than libidinal sexuality and involved sophisticated and highly refined courtliness that emulated religious love in its ability to create a holy union between the participants. Adherents to Romantic love in later centuries affirmed the capacity of love to effect a merging between two people who thus became one. Singer analyzes the transition from courtly to Romantic by reference to the writings of many artists beginning with Dante and ending with Richard Wagner as well as Neoplatonist philosophers of the Italian Renaissance Descartes Spinoza Rousseau Hume Kant Hegel and Schopenhauer. In relation to romanticism itself he distinguishes between two aspects--benign romanticism and Romantic pessimism--that took on renewed importance in the twentieth century.</p>