I can't imagine this small book being appealing to the general public. It's academic philosophy with a bit of popular dressing. I really enjoyed it, but I had to switch on my academic reader mindset, so to speak, to get through it. I learned a lot about my own struggle for "wholeheartedness", so thank you, Dr. Frankfurt. This little book was some big therapy for me.

While I really liked and found useful Frankfurt's "On Bullshit", and thought his "On Truth" interesting even if more obvious, I was left somewhat unsatisfied and unconvinced by this book.

On the plus side, his writing style is, as always, an unalloyed pleasure -- clear, concise, and well constructed. And he does, IMHO, a good job of defining and exploring a concept of love.

But he veers off into irrelevancy in the last third of the book with his examination of self-love, which he basically ends up defining as the commitment to finding things to love and then loving them... which is clearly implied in his definition of love and hence is something of a rehash of the first two thirds.

Perhaps worse, in the first two thirds of the book he reflects on all the ways in which one can become confused about love -- by loving the "wrong" things (mostly, but not always, people), by becoming confused about what one loves, by encountering contradictions in trying to love disparate things, and so on... but then he doesn't give us any useful guidance as to how to tell what one loves or what one should love or how to resolve any of the numerous other complexities that he points out.

One could argue that he was writing a philosophy book and not self-help... which is perfectly true... but when you provide no guidance as to how to map the central definition you are exploring to the real world (other than something akin to "you know it when you feel it"), then I can't help but think that you have fatally compromised the relevance of your work to anyone other than the most permanent residents of an ivory tower.

Al libro y al autor llegue por la recomendación sobre otro de sus textos, que creo que es el mas famoso y relevante: On Bullshit. Creo que fue por alguna conferencia de Ernesto Castro lo que me llevo a revisar bibliografía de él. En fin. El libro me pareció interesante en cierta medida, sin embargo, a medida que transcurría el mismo, mas me parecía una repetición de una misma tesis, que, en últimas, defiende, así lo niegue el autor, un moralismo, pues parte de las mismas premisas que éste.
Si bien el propósito del libro es tratar sobre el tema del amor, para hacerlo el autor recurre (como creo frecuente en los gringos) a cimentar las premisas a manera de un Modus Tollens para llegar a una conclusión aún mas sólida, dejando en el camino un monto de supuestos que se dan para hacer mas verosímil la tesis que trata.
Como su título en español lo dice: se trata de las razones que nos motivan a amar, lo cual, se explica por su título en ingles, son el sentido de nuestras vidas. Pero para llegar a esa conclusión, el autor se vale de los criterios que cimentan la voluntad y, por ello, nuestros intereses. Pues todo acto humano debe ser dirigido en pro y por preocupación de los intereses que tenemos en nuestra relación con el mundo, ergo, lo que lo compone: personas y cosas, entonces, todo interés, según el autor, se forma en ocasión a la preocupación que nos causan las personas y las cosas, lo que determina nuestra voluntad y conducta. Así las cosas, el amor se trata de un tipo de preocupación que surge por el interés que tendemos a generar por los demás, lo que implica modificar nuestra voluntad en pro de cuidar a esos alguienes o algos.
Bien, así va el libro, argumentado este criterio, por lo cual termina por desembocar ante el innegable amor propio, el cual, es uno de los mas puros, sin embargo, para arribar a dicha conclusión el autor se vale de varios presupuestos que, podríamos decir, son peticiones de principio, buscando hacer de su argumento algo más verosímil y razonable, sin embargo, considero que, como texto que parte de un sujeto dado, olvida muchas veces las condiciones materiales que constituyen el objeto de su estudio, siendo más preciso, a mi consideración, los textos que Ortega y Gasset tiene sobre el mismo tema.
En una conclusión apresurada podría decir que se trata de un buen libro.

I really enjoyed this. Frankfurt makes sensible arguments that are very logically consistent and that have real world implications. The kind of chapbook philosophy that anyone could appreciate and benefit from, even if it only makes you think without changing your behavior.

Having worked through a fair amount of Frankfurt by now, I'm at least familiar, if not comfortable with, his writing style. The attention On Bullshit brought him probably has not served him all that well with general readers because, the fact is, he doesn't really write for them. Despite the seemingly engaging titles of his works, he pitches his prose somewhere between grad student philosophy seminar and everyday speech, and, frankly, closer to the former. Over time I've grown at least used to this style, even if at times it forces me to slow down and parse one of his well-turned sentences longer than usual. In other words, he is always grammatical and his points made precisely if a little fussily: he's not an easy read. The prose is made more challenging by the fact that he doesn't pause often in this work to give concrete examples of the claims he is presenting. I found myself resorting to jotting in the margins examples and cases that might more clearly illustrate some of his seemingly rebarbative pronouncements. I also felt the final three chapters presented a more coherent set of ideas than the introductory chapter ("How Should We Live?") which often seemed like warmed over Spinoza. The chapters specifically on love improved as the text went on. Frankfurt also ends the book as he has others, with a kind of one-off joke or observation which provokes further thought just as the text winds to a close. Recommended for those with patience and (if needed) access to a dictionary for help with a vocabulary that might challenge the common reader.

After reading another book that vaguely touched on philosophy I began to see the helpfulness it brings in deciding how to order your life. I had heard of this book from a YouTuber (CJ the X) who had summarized some of the points, which sounded very enticing to me as love is the part of humanity I feel is most reasonable as pursuing.

Frankfurt here puts forth the logic behind allowing love to be the cornerstone of our pursuits. Frankfurt speaks on the seeming lack of a universal basis for a good life by way of explaining that you must know what you are measuring before you can objectively measure it, while deciding on what is to be measured is a subjective decision. There is in our existence a necessity to subjectively set out on our path that we will judge our adherence to with objective metrics. Frankfurt here posits that love, as in the people, things, and passions that we would pursue for their own ends and not simply as a means to our own, should be the guiding light in deciding the path we begin on and the metrics we set up to judge ourselves in that endeavor. In this line of logic, the most freedom we could experience is to be of one mind and undivided in passions, which sounds like a great place to be (or at least aspire to) to me.

I found this a very interesting and inspiring philosophical treatise which I am very fortunate to have found as my first foray into philosophy. Would definitely suggest to anyone looking into philosophy or simply struggling to decide on what they want to live by.

A nice reintroduction to philosophy for me. I enjoyed this more than I thought I would and found it so wildly timely that I was left a little rattled after finishing it.

I was worried from the beginning chapters that there wouldn’t be a concrete argument taken and everything would be circular and vague but I could not have been more wrong. Really enjoyed Frankfurt’s strong convictions.

Typically cryptic philosophical jargon but it makes some great points. I suspect there are a few chapters that anyone can identify with.

Creo que es mi segundo libro de filosofía. Lo leí por recomendación de un podcast llamado urbi et Orbi (recomendado).

Frankfurt nos lleva a analizar tres puntos. Cómo vivir, las razones del amor y el amor propio. Y, me quedé con lo siguiente:

Es importante vivir bajo los criterios ue hemos considerado importantes y que nos importan a nosotros. Por lo tanto, juzgar los criterios de los otros es innecesario e imposible porque no hay como definir cuáles criterios son buenos o malos y bajo cuál parámetro juzgar.

El amor es desinteresado e incluye amar lo que el amado ama y le importa. Por lo tanto, es importante que los dos amén o les importe las mismas cosas (en su mayoría)

El amor propio es sumamente importante y es uno de los amores más puros.

Si no leen tanta filosofía, como yo. Les recomiendo escuchar el podcast y en específico el capítulo sobre el amor.

Rating: 6.8

The author lays out a philosophical approach to the varying types of love. While I liked the rigorous and philosophical approach, I felt like it was incomplete and could have been given more weight with regard to the practice of loving. Along with this, I feel like the book missed out on employing and describing existing notions and paradigms. This could make it easier for readers to follow the author’s language.

However, it may also be partly my own fault; it has taken me a while to read this very short book, simply because other books were more interesting and gripping (e.g., 1984). Accordingly, this book may require a re-read.

“The life of a person who loves himself is enviable on account of its wholeheartedness, but it may not be at all admirable. The function of love is not to make people good. Its function is just to make their lives meaningful, and thus to help make their lives good for them to live.”

“If it is finally and definitely clear to you that you will always suffer from inhibitions and self-doubt, and that you will never succeed in being fully satisfied with what you are — if true self-love is, for you, really out of the question — at least be sure to hang on to your sense of humor.”

i thought this was a lucid explanation of how we should logically approach the question of how to live our lives. not only by looking at what we want or desire, but at a deeper level what we care about, have interest in, what is important to us, and finally, what we love. i like how frankfurt shows that self-love, despite its reputation, can be one of the purest forms of love there is (if one defines love as frankfurt does). i thought it terse how frankfurt pointed out that when confronted with a decision regarding two seemingly incompatible desires, we can make a decision and decide which side of the fence we are on by taking an active role to achieve one's interests and what one cares about in the face of desires that are in direct opposition to those interests. these interests we side with are conducive to our agency, and thus a very important part of the kind of person we take ourself to be.

i don't agree with a few more fundamental stances frankfurt seems to take in this account of love. being big on choice and freedom, or the appearance of it, a few questions arise. when someone can't muster the will to do 'x', for example, is this because he can't or simply because he chooses not to or chooses not to want to? does this individual simply not see the value in doing 'x' herself, and thus doesn't choose to muster the will to do 'x'? i think the value implicit in much of the love frankfurt talks about is created and projected by individuals, as agents, and this would result in different foundations within the topic, but the end result would be comparable.

overall a great book.