Single Idea 2359

[catalogued under 22. Metaethics / B. Value / 2. Values / g. Love]

Full Idea

Desire and love are the same thing, save that by desire we always signify the absence of the object, by love most commonly the presence of the same.

Gist of Idea

Desire and love are the same, but in the desire the object is absent, and in love it is present

Source

Thomas Hobbes (Leviathan [1651], 1.06)

Book Reference

Hobbes,Thomas: 'Leviathan', ed/tr. Macpherson,C.B. [Penguin 1981], p.119


A Reaction

Implausible reductivism from Hobbes. Plenty of counterexamples to this. You work it out!