Passion and logic, Duality of love

Published: 30 Dec 2012 at 00.00
Newspaper section: News

As 2012 winds down let's examine the duality of love in the context of Thai culture, not least of which because I'm in the mood to party and couldn't care less about the news and what's going on in politics. We'll save that for next year, after I sober up. Instead, let's ponder philosophically on romance. An unexamined life is not worth living; an unexamined society is not worth living in.

The first phrase belongs to Socrates; the second belongs to yours truly. Not that I would ever have the audacity to put my thoughts on par with the founder of Western philosophy, but putting the two phrases together does help to order the flow of logical thoughts a bit. After all, what is a society but a cluster of lives in a community? For that matter, what is social behaviour but a collection of individual behaviours acting together somewhat uniformly? I qualified "uniformly" with the term "somewhat" because no group of people ever acts exactly the same, though there is always the prevailing norm.

That prevailing norm of course becomes a stereotype, a generalisation when we theorise about a society. There are always exceptions to any man-made theories; after all, as man is flawed, man-made theories are full of holes. As such, behavioural science is subjective at best and when the focus magnifies from a single person to an entire society where millions of whining, me-me-me individuals exist, generalisation is necessary to form an understanding.

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spiceman
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Discussion 3 : 30 Dec 2012 at 05.353
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We, Thais, are often limited by the limitation of our Thai language. On the other hand, the Greeks enjoy the broadest expression of the meaning of "Love." The followings are four kinds of Greek words for "love:"

The Greek word "Storge" means love between parents and their offspring.

"Philia" means brotherly love or friendship.

"Eros" where we got the word "Erotic" from, means sexual love between two lovers, especially husband & wife.

And finally, "Agape" means unconditional, sacrificial, or supreme love.
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ggh
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Discussion 2 : 30 Dec 2012 at 04.572
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Happy New Year! All the best to everyone. Hopefully our resolutions for the New Year will have a positive impact on ourselves, our families and also society as a whole. The idea that stands out most for me in this article is personal responsibility! Being honest with myself, I can make great improvements in the area of responsibility which will ultimately benefit other peoples lives.
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bennu
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Discussion 1 : 30 Dec 2012 at 02.471
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Education could involve resistance to raw exploitation, yet cultivate usefulness without losing.
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Passion and logic, Duality of love | Bangkok Post: opinion