Marshmallow hearts overflowing from a heart-shaped dish. (Provided photo — Peter Berra)

It’s understandable if you don’t think of philosophers as lovers. We have our long-standing obsession with reason over passion to blame. But truth be told, love is inherent in our pursuit of knowledge — the etymological definition of philosophy is, after all, the love of wisdom. We are essentially lovers! And we like to think and talk about love. Want proof? Let’s look at what a few philosophers say about love and imagine what they might pen in their Valentine’s Day card.

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Aristotle

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Pragmatic to the core, Aristotle claims that love is an intentional virtue that requires effort, cultivation and is based on mutual respect — you love the other person for who they are, not for what they can give you, and you and your beloved help each other fulfill your highest potential for the good. Aristotelian love is not a short-lived burning passion, but rather, it is reasonable and takes time to build.

No bubbly hearts here, Aristotle’s card would be practical and respectful: My time is most reasonably spent loving you.

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Immanuel Kant

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For Immanuel Kant, love stems from the moral duty to promote the happiness of others. When applied to loving one person, the duty is complicated by desire but can be reasonable if love and respect are properly balanced.

It might not sweep you off your feet, but Kant’s words would be steady and reliable: My love is always on duty for you.

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Simone de Beauvoir

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Simone de Beauvoir argues that ideal love involves friendship and non-possession, a mutual recognition of two liberties. Lovers should walk side-by-side, supporting each other in their pursuits and in their freedom to change. She describes traditional love as a trap, especially for women who are socialized into believing that they should please their partner at all costs.

De Beauvoir’s message would certainly have a feminist subtext: Our mutual and equal freedom makes our love enduring.

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Maggie Nelson

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For Maggie Nelson, love is a complex, disruptive and creative project. She describes intellectual and emotional curiosity as the primary mode of engagement between lovers. On a fundamental level, love is a necessary element in building and sustaining all forms of life.

The dynamism of love would be in Nelson’s note: Our love is a creative force of nature.

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Agnes Callard

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Agnes Callard argues that people are drawn to others who help them be the person they aspire to be. When the aspiration dies, either because the person has attained their goal or because the person is no longer advancing toward their aspired self, the love may die too. Love, for Callard, is an aspirational pursuit for moral improvement.

Callard’s declaration would be straightforward and grand: Loving you is my highest aspiration.

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Arthur Schopenhauer

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Arthur Schopenhauer describes love as a biological trick that serves to propagate the species. Under the veil of the love-illusion, people fall in love and make babies. The trick, however, is transitory and only lasts until the goal of species procreation is accomplished. Then, as he says, you’re left with a baby and a “hateful companion.”

Schopenhauer would not mince words: Love, lie to me and let me be tricked by your romantic illusion.

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Jean-Paul Sartre

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Jean-Paul Sartredepicts love as the desire to possess another person’s freedom. The central struggle between lovers is that both people want to be the center of the other person’s world, and yet, both people want to remain free. For this reason, Sartre describes love as an ultimately conflicted and doomed project.

His missive would be mischievous: We are doomed to be in love.

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Albert Camus

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Albert Camus describes love as a passionate yet impermanent force against the absurdity and meaninglessness of life. As he is wont to do in his absurdist philosophy, Camus encourages us to embrace love in its joy and inevitable pain, and to do so without illusions. He declares that true love is rare, transient and unwavering in its self-awareness.

His card could be a direct quote from his book The Myth of Sisyphus: “There is no noble love but that which recognizes itself to be short-lived and exceptional.”

As I write this column, I realize that I’m not doing a very good job of proving that philosophers are lovers. Plato, please vindicate us.

Plato

For Plato, love is like a ladder that elevates and transforms our desire for physical attraction into a desire for wisdom and the good. Plato followed the Aristophanes myth that humans were originally split in half by Zeus and spend their lives driven to find their other half.

Platonic love is therefore a desire for wholeness and completion, an idea that is easily adapted to a Valentine’s Day avowal: You literally complete me.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Prompt: Tell me about the best card you ever received.