Love

Flint the Dwarf · Post by **Flint the Dwarf** » Mon Oct 20, 2003 11:02 am

MAS PRODUCTIONS wrote:
flint_the_dwarf wrote:Even if they're sterile, they still have that part of the brain.

Not stating my view on this yet.
But then what would keep them together for 10 or 15 years.

Habit.

downwithpants · Post by **downwithpants** » Mon Oct 20, 2003 11:03 am

Tab. wrote:
downwithpants wrote:love wasn't evolved to facilitate reproduction.

love is a result of us being a highly social species. a key ingredient to love is compassion, an understanding of other's feelings. to be compassionate requires an understanding that other living things have thoughts and feelings. this understanding is limited to the most highly cognitive species.

love isn't a desire derived from our drive to reproduce.
lust is.
Our nature to reproduce and the wiring which gives us the rewarding sensation at the onset of reproduction combined with our ability to comprehend our feelings of attraction and those of another form love by and large, but that doesn't change the fact that the drive and the base emotions/rewards come from our ancient brain, and the rest is endowed by our self-aware logical part.

The emotion love is a responsive reward at the onset of a partner engagement that could lead to reproduction. Drive=Love.

Yes, the nature to reproduce and wiring for rewarding reroduction is lust. Pretty much all cephalized animal species feel some kind of lust. Humans are one of the few species to feel love, and its difficult to say if any other species feel love. I guess you could say love is an advanced form of lust, but that is just a small subset of love. We love our friends, and we love our family. And it is not platonic or logical love. We can feel just as much emotion for them as we can for a reproductive mate. Yet we (most of us) don't lust for them. Disregarding lust, love isn't a very strong factor in determining reproductive success.

El Banana wrote: Love encourages the males of our species to stick with their reproductive partners and contribute to the raising of their offspring, thus improving the chances for survival of the species, and the passing on of our genetic traits.

Savia wrote: But yes, I can concede that 'popular love' might in some respect be linked to choosing lifelong reproductive partners, that's not the whole thing. Social influences has to have some effect.

Actually, the human species is not naturally a monogamous species. 85% of all cultures past and present were or are polygynous (1 male - multiple wives). Monogamy is really only instituted by moral codes and standards.

downwithpants · Post by **downwithpants** » Mon Oct 20, 2003 11:07 am

downwithpants wrote: Disregarding lust, love isn't a very strong factor in determining reproductive success.

Hmm, let me clarify, love does give us reproductive fitness benefits, but it isn't what is telling us to go have sex. The benefit it gives us is a better understanding of how to interact socially with others.

Lyrs · Post by **Lyrs** » Mon Oct 20, 2003 12:06 pm

flint_the_dwarf wrote:
MAS PRODUCTIONS wrote:
flint_the_dwarf wrote:Even if they're sterile, they still have that part of the brain.

Not stating my view on this yet.
But then what would keep them together for 10 or 15 years.
Habit.

*ahem*

Hope

[of having a family, adoptions, or otherwise.]

Flint the Dwarf · Post by **Flint the Dwarf** » Mon Oct 20, 2003 1:21 pm

Lyrs wrote:
flint_the_dwarf wrote:
MAS PRODUCTIONS wrote:
flint_the_dwarf wrote:Even if they're sterile, they still have that part of the brain.

Not stating my view on this yet.
But then what would keep them together for 10 or 15 years.
Habit.
*ahem*

Hope

[of having a family, adoptions, or otherwise.]

Ah yes, agreed. I knew there was something else.

MistyCaldwell · Post by **MistyCaldwell** » Tue Oct 21, 2003 2:46 am

Maybe it's just they enjoy each other's company? Not eveyone who lacks children is that way because they can't have them. Some people just don't want them.

Tab. · Post by **Tab.** » Tue Oct 21, 2003 3:26 am

But our evolutionary setup isn't case-dependent. Even though you can't have children, you're still being driven through tons of subconscious productionally-rooted drives to have a partner and such.

Pair bonding is part of successful propagation of the species. That's why it happens as an instinctive drive and that does not just include lust, it includes the drives which make us feel good when we are in a situation that alerts us to the fact that we have a mate/bond.

Tab. · Post by **Tab.** » Tue Oct 21, 2003 3:28 am

p.s. I'm right and you're wrong because I said so.

Flint the Dwarf · Post by **Flint the Dwarf** » Tue Oct 21, 2003 9:46 am

Tab. wrote:p.s. I'm right and you're wrong because I said so.

Tab. · Post by **Tab.** » Tue Oct 21, 2003 9:52 am