ABSTRACT
Love is deeply bound up with our humanity. It is also available in various shapes and sizes. ere is the sustained, erotic and sexualized love that we can have for a partner; the transitory romantic love that idealizes its object; the love that is part of friendship; the parental and fi lial love that may exist between mother or father and child; the love of a sister or brother; love of the family dog; love of neighbours, of mankind, of the planet, of all living things and so on. Some of these loves have their own specialized terminology of philia, agape, eros and caritas, a terminology that has been passed on to us from antiquity.
