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Full Idea
Love is the extremely difficult realisation that something other than oneself is real.
Gist of Idea
Love is realising something other than oneself is real
Source
Iris Murdoch (The Sublime and the Good [1959], p.215)
Book Ref
Murdoch,Iris: 'Existentialists and Mystics', ed/tr. Conradi,Peter [Chatto and Windus 1997], p.215
A Reaction
I suspect that this is a necessary condition for love, but not the thing itself. The realisation she describes may not be love. You would attain her realisation if you shared a prison cell with a terrifying psychopath.
| 22709 | We should first decide what are the great works of art, with aesthetic theory following from that [Murdoch] |
| 22713 | Love is realising something other than oneself is real [Murdoch] |
| 22712 | Art and morals are essentially the same, and are both identical with love [Murdoch] |
| 22715 | Great art proves the absurdity of art for art's sake [Murdoch] |
| 22714 | Because art is love, it improves us morally [Murdoch] |