TEMPORAL RELATIONSHIP THEORY FOR THE JUSTIFICATION OF LOVE

• Authors: Wong Muk Yan
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

We believe that love happens for a variety of reasons, yet the alteration of these reasons need not alter love. Philosophers call the former the selectivity of love and the latter the constancy of love. In this paper, I critically review quality theory and person theory and I argue that neither can explain both phenomena. In light of Kolodny (2003) and Bagley (2015), I propose a temporal relationship theory (TRT) and argue that love between two people is justified if they are in a relationship for which a similar interpretation of the history, understanding of the present, and anticipation of the future of some identify-shaping ends of the relationship is shared. TRT can explain both the constancy and selectivity of love and the role of the beloved’s qualities and identity in the justification of love.

Keywords

EN

LOVE; TEMPORAL RELATIONSHIP THEORY; JUSTIFICATION

• Publisher: Institute of Philosophy of the Slovak Academy of Sciences and Institute of Philosophy of Academy of Sciences of Czech Republic
• Journal: Organon F. medzinárodný časopis pre analytickú filozofiu
• Year: 2025
• Volume: 32
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 2 – 28

Contributors

author

Wong Muk Yan

• Department of Social Science, The Hang Seng University of Hong Kong, Hang Shin Link, Siu Lek Yuen, Shatin, N.T., Hong Kong

• https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0891-8660

Identifiers

DOI

https://doi.org/10.31577/orgf.2025.32101