Love. What philosophers say about it

Thousands of books have been written about love and countless words have been spoken on the subject, making it impossible for one person to grasp their entirety. Understanding it as a holistic spiritual phenomenon has become possible thanks to philosophy. The first attempts at rational contemplation of love were made in Antiquity: Socrates believed that true love inspires a person to seek truth, promotes spiritual growth, and helps overcome selfish aspirations. Plato was the first to create a classification of love, defining its types. His concept became a source for Western European philosophy, which divided love into earthly and spiritual. Christian teaching brought self-sacrifice and compassion to the forefront: Augustine the Blessed combined the Christian ideal of love with Neoplatonic doctrine. During the Renaissance, Descartes transferred the domain of love into the sphere of human affections and passions, while Kant conferred upon it the status of a moral category. Freud introduced a revolutionary significance to the understanding of the nature of the concept by reducing love to libido. Fromm considered it a social phenomenon, a way to overcome loneliness and a form of interaction with other people. An original concept of love was also created in Russian philosophy, thanks to the ideas of V. Solovyov, N. Berdyaev, and others, who saw in it the principle of organizing existence, bringing harmony and good to humanity.