Living Love

Erosology is agent-relative. There is no non-derivative code of behaviour or ethics to which Erosologists are bound.

There is, nevertheless, a theory on the "good life" to which we all, as Erosologists, subscribe. Quite simply,

Love is the key.

In recognition of its Greek philosophical roots, Erosology views a virtuous life as inextricably linked to the good life.Nothing is more beneficial to the individual than acting virtuously.

Virtues are moral intuitions chosen for their own sake. They are a priori truths. This is not to say that all virtues will be universalizable. Indeed, our understanding of virtue can be highly culturally specific and it is unavoidably bound to our own perception of the world. Common intuitions include the virtues of honesty, courage, compassion, sensitivity, and love.

So what, or who, is the virtuous character? Virtue and wisdom are fundamentally linked. The virtuous character chooses actions intentionally, based on reason rather than emotional impulse because it is a good in itself.  A person with the ability to understand the world and therefore react to it based on our most considered moral intuitions is the wise and virtuous character.

How do we come to develop wisdom and virtue? Quite simply, through the process of love.

When we ascend in love, for another or perhaps for ourselves, we begin to mediate our moral intuitions for action according to those actions which will best advance our love relationship.  In that sense, our psychology in love, at least as we first experience it, might be fundamentally consequentialist.

The deeper we ascend, the more our actions are motivated by intuitions because they are good in themselves. Here, we start to learn what it means to truly act virtuously.

The process of love at all times involves a conscious or otherwise questioning of that love. It motivates the study of who we are, what we want to be and more importantly what it is we love when we are in love. This is true beauty. This is ultimately, the study of virtue.

Through love we reveal ourselves to another and in so doing to ourselves.  As we ascend in love we transcend ourselves: our earthly forms are vehicles for the pursuit of knowledge, and of wisdom. But the highest state of being is wisdom itself.  That is, the intuition to act, intentionally and rationally, through no other motivation than love.