Love’s Bond – Robert Nozick
Love’s Bond – Robert Nozick In this writing assignment I will be giving a detailed interpretation on ’s writing, “Love’s Bond”. First I will give an explanation on Nozick’s account of the nature of love. Secondly, I will explain why Robert Nozick believes that in love there is no desire to trade up to another partner. Lastly, I will also explain why he says that it is incoherent to ask what the value of love is to an individual person. The nature of love according to Nozick is the desire to form a “we” with the person you feel romantic love for, the desire to become one with the loved one.
When two individuals are mutually in romantic love with one another, they both desire to form a “we” with each other. Once two romantic partners form a “we” they subconsciously agree to make life decisions together because now they are one and what affects one affects the other equally. Any type of life event good or bad that affects one person affects the other person equally because once they form a “we” they are like one. Nozick explains that when two individuals form a “we” they share a new identity.
According to Nozick this new formation completely takes over of the individuals and they become something new, something transformed in a way. This desire to form a “we” with another is something magnificent and great. He explains that, “the desire to share not only our life but our identity with another marks our fullest openness. To Nozick, forming a “we” is a really big deal. Forming a “we” is a complete transformation of what a person used to be when they were and individual. According to Nozick, when a person is in love, they do not have desires to trade up to a different partner.
Nozick says, “In the view of a person who loves someone romantically, there couldn’t be anyone else who was better as a partner. ” This quote gives support to his idea that a person in love would not desire to trade up. The person in love does not believe in their heart that anyone could be better than the person they are in love with. According to Nozick the thought of trading up to a different partner would not even cross the mind of a person who is in love. Nozick goes on to explain that a person in love might sometimes want to make a few changes on their mate; however, this does not imply that the person in love wants a different mate.
Nozick believes that a person in love loves very specific qualities in their mate. For this reason, even if a person in love wanted to make their loved one better this would not mean they want a different person. To the person in love “no other person could have precisely those traits; therefore, any imagined person will be the same mate (perhaps) somewhat changed, not somebody else. ” Nozick believes that when a person is in love, they love the very specific ways that their partner radiates a specific traits, not the trait itself.
They love the person, “for his or her own particular and non-duplicable way of embodying such general traits, a person in love could not make any coherent sense of his “trading up” to another. ” According to Nozick a person who is even considering trading up is a person who is no longer in love. He does not feel that the thought of trading up is a thought that an individual in love could even think about. Nozick feels that it is incoherent to ask what the value of love is to an individual person because there is no individual when you form a “we”; there is this new identity.
Like the example that was given in class regarding the sperm and egg, once the sperm and the egg have joint, you do not ask how the sperm is doing because it no longer exist. In the same way it does not make sense to ask the value of love to an individual because the individual no longer exists once the “we” is formed. According to Nozick when two individuals join and form a “we” this new identity completely takes over and creates a new shared identity. To Nozick, it would be completely irrational to even think of the person of an individual and to ask what the value of love is to them.
It is something that is just not possible when a person has formed a “we” with another. In conclusion, I have given my complete interpretation on Robert Nozick’s writing, “Love’s Bond”. I have explained to the best of my knowledge the nature of love, the reason why in romantic love there is no desire of trading up, and lastly why it is incoherent to ask what the value of love is to an individual. Works Cited 1. Nozick, Robert. “Love’s Bond. ” Philosophical Perspectives on Sex & Love. New York: Oxford UP, 1995. 231-39. Print.
