ABSTRACT
Can love be commanded? Can love be a duty? The categories of love and duty appear to us not to mix very well. Love, we think, must be spontaneous and free, or it is not genuine love at all. For example, parents can hardly expect their children to love them because they have been ordered to do so. Love is an emotion and we think emotions must be spontaneous to be “authentic.” In any case, we don’t think we have much control over our emotions. Duty, on the other hand, is precisely what is not spontaneous and free and duties must concern actions we do have control over. If I have a duty to pay my taxes, then I ought to pay them regardless of whether I want to do so, regardless of how I feel about it. So how can love be a duty?
