%0 Journal Article
%T Rethinking Kolodny's Relationship Theory of Love
%A Kehinde Olusegun Tijani
%J Open Access Library Journal
%V 10
%N 7
%P 1-10
%@ 2333-9721
%D 2023
%I Open Access Library
%R 10.4236/oalib.1110385
%X What reasons do we have and why do we have these reasons when we love? Niko Kolodny in his 2003 essay argues that one¡¯s reason for loving a person is contingent on one¡¯s relationship with the beloved. Although he demonstrated a prima facie reason to think that love is a valuation of a relationship from the perspective of the subject and non-instrumental valuation of one¡¯s beloved, Kolodny is inconsistent between saying that relationships provide reasons for love, and that valuing a relationship constitutes love¡ªa problem that could have been avoided if he concentrated more on arguing what reasons for love are, rather than attempting to understand what love consists in. Kolodny¡¯s thesis clearly has genuine ¡°bootstrapping¡± problems as a theory of what constitutes love. I propose a more nuanced approach to Kolodny¡¯s account with the claim that love is an emotional attitude. Because a comprehensive account of relationship theory of love is best understood not as a claim about the subject¡¯s beliefs, but as a claim about the function of love.
%K Romantic and Familial Love
%K Emotional Attitude
%K Attentional
%K Kolodny
%K Relationship
%K Mutual Appreciation
%U http://www.oalib.com/paper/6798662