ABSTRACT
The ancient Greeks acknowledged several forms of love, among them: sexual passion; parental, filial, and conjugal affection; fraternal feeling; friendship; love of country; love of wisdom.1 An anthology of philosophies of love distinguishes six varieties in western thought: romantic love, eros, agape, Tristanism and chivalric love, friendship, fellow feeling.2 A threevolume work on historical ideas of love discusses sexual love, courtly love, romantic love, married love, and religious love and makes passing reference to mother love, father love, and family love.3 And a 2002 essay on teaching the philosophy of love calls friendship, romantic love, the love of parents for children, and the love of humanity the most basic forms of love.4
