Friday, November 28, 2014

Memo: A Philosophy or Theology of "Like"

A memo to think about how people often say we don't need to like people but only to love them. What is meant here by "like"? Is it an affective attraction to a person? Is it how that person makes me feel? These two things (an attraction and how a person makes me feel) are different, yet both are usually associated with "liking" a person.

Does loving a person lead to some sort of attraction to them?

Also, what are the social consequences of "liking" or "upvoting" or "downvoting" as is becoming common on social media websites for a notion of "like"? Does "like" become synonymous with some form of intellectual (social, political, philosophical, theological, etc.) or affective support?

If I don't "like" a person, why does it seem very difficult also to love that person? Is there a strict separation between liking and loving even when loving is defined as willing another person's good? Did our Lord "dislike" anybody?

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