Is Romantic Love a Moral Issue - Essay Example

Is Romantic Love a Moral Issue number Is Romantic Love a Moral Issue The morality of romantic love is an intricate issue and an enduring debate that has been explained by different theorist, social scientists and philosophers from different perspectives. The perspective about love as morality issue depends upon the philosophy and notion that one possesses about the love. The school of thought that consider love as sexual and passionate desire for any person think that romantic love is something inevitable because acquisitive love is egocentric and selfish and thus could not be seen from moral perspective. On the other hand, the theorists arguing about the social implications of love and union believe that romantic love must be seen from moral perspective. The essay presents some arguments in favor of ideology that views love as romantic issue and expresses the agreement with the school of thought that views love as moral issue. There are different theories presented by the philosophers and theorists to explain the dynamics of love. Broadly speaking, love has been criticized in to four major categories including love as union, love as robust concern, love as valuing and love as emotion. These four types of love give different place and importance to the beloved and its characteristics however, the mutual relationship between the lover and beloved in all of these cases must be seen from social perspective and the essence of morality has to be considered while considering the relationship between people engaged in love of any kind because romantic love is a moral issue irrespective of its kind (White, 2001, p91). Nygren (1953, p89) explains that love of desire keeps a person irresponsive towards the merits of the beloved because sexual desire overcomes the person’s sense of perceiving physical and internal beauty of a person. In this kind of relationship, the morality and social values are often ruined because the person engaged in the union are most likely to think about maintaining sexual relationships on short term basis rather going to have years long relationship or social and familial life. It implies that the perception about love often compelled a person to betray the conventional boundaries of society that define the moral limits and the engaged people get involve in sexual relation without thinking about society and moral values. Romance refers to the pleasurable and excitement feelings that a person experience in association with love. The romantic love relationship usually stresses upon the expression of love and deep emotional desires that connect one person to another. The essence of emotion also dominates the romantic love relationship and the people engaged in romantic love often give important place to the feelings intimacy and affinity rather focusing less upon physical intimacy. The element of sexual relationship usually does not govern the relationships in case of romantic love (White, 2001, p91). The morality of love is often seen to understand the relationship between physical attachments of the people. The personal and social relationship are maintained in the perspective of social morality due to which it is argued that the romantic love is a moral issue. There is great importance of love and care in the romantic love relationship that use to be an important element of the social morality. It implies that romantic love also stresses upon morality and people engaged in the romantic love are expected to give due importance to the moral values. Similarly, the people around them also use to see them stick towards the moral values. Scruton (1986, p. 230) writes about romantic love and explains that love exists just as soon as reciprocity becomes community: that is, just so soon as all distinction between my interests and your interests is overcome”. It implies that romantic love is union of concern where individuals act for their mutual sake and concerns. They give importance to care, concerns, emotional responses and actions of each other because in this partial fusion they respect each other’s interests and together they act as we rather me and you. The moral values have great role to play in this situation because the people involved in the relation give respect to each other and show their kind sides by expressing concerns for the partners (Nygren, 1953, p83). All individuals act as social creatures and being in love relationship also keep them stick towards sociality and they usually have the sense of respecting the social dimensions. The romantic love relations could not be established and maintained while remaining indifferent to the social rituals and moral values because in each society there are certain written and unwritten rules to define the limits of relationship between individuals. The people engaged in the romantic love have to keep in view that the expression of their love should not violate the norms and moral values of the society. If they go beyond the moral boundaries of the society they usually have to face opposition from the people around them because the romantic love is not expected to act against the social values and system (Scruton, 1986, p98). The thought about morals in romance is often surrounded by heated debates and strong arguments from different sides. People use to have quite different and opponents views about romantic love as moral issue because the perception and philosophy of love also differ considerably from people to people and society to society. In different societies, the moral principles are different and the people use to judge others’ act according to different principles and rules. Hence, the romantic love also gets different types of reception in different societies and people use to held different views about morality of romantic love according to their own social norms and values. The implication of morality to the romantic relationship could also be understood from the perspective of fairy tales. The romantic love is beautifully and appealingly portrayed in the minds of the people through the fairy tales. It could be observed that the fairy tales are usually strongly imbued with the principles of morality and social values. The characters of most of the fairy tales are portrayed in connection with morality. The characters are widely appraised and liked by the people who use to express importance of morality through their acts and attitude whereas the characters ignorant of the moral values are convicted of hatred and dislike from the society (Nygren, 1953, p83). The folk tales and stories also portray the people engaged in romantic love very responsive to the social values and morality and they are positively portrayed in front of the people because they are reported to give importance to the social values and moral issues. In addition, the literary pieces focused upon the romantic love are also created in moral setting. The depiction of morality and values in the fairy tales, literature pieces and fold stories also implies that romantic love is a moral issue and could not be understood or analyzed without giving due importance to the issues of morality and social boundaries. The opponents of romantic love as moral issue often propose that romantic live is something superficial and out of the ordinary routine that could not be taken as moral issue because the people engaged in moral love use to look at the soul of the beloved rather perceiving surface meanings of physical relationship. The romance is not what the people actually see from their eyes because they could not understand by just seeing the real intentions and emotions of the lover and beloved. Here they could niot correctly interpret the emotion of the people and could not understand the real motivation for their acts. Hence, according to this standpoint, romantic love is not a moral issue but it is delicate things that only the involved people could understand. The sexual desire often dominates the romantic love and at this point also the people are supposed to give importance to the moral values 0f the society. The sexual relations are supposed to be in the limits that are defined by the society. The moral principles of the society are supposed to be followed while maintaining the sexual and romantic love relationship. The religion also defines some moral boundaries for the expression of love that the people commonly follow while maintaining their physical and emotional relationship. The entire discussion could be sum up with the conclusion that romantic love could not be interpreted without looking at the moral values of the society where the people engaged in romantic love use to live. The theories and philosophies explaining the dynamics of romance and love also affirm that romantic love is a moral issue because this intricate relation has to be careful about the moral values of the society. The people also want to see the lovers and beloved complying with the moral jurisdiction of the society and don’t want to see them violating the norms and moral rituals of the surrounding environment. References Nygren, A. (1953). Agape and Eros, Philadelphia, PA: Westminster Press. Scruton, R. (1986). Sexual Desire: A Moral Philosophy of the Erotic, NY: Free Press. White, R. J. (2001). Loves Philosophy. London: Rowman & Littlefield. Read More