Love

What is love?

What types and distinctions are there?

Some dictionary definitions:

1. “an intense feeling of deep affection.”
2. “a deep romantic or sexual attachment to someone.”
3. “a great interest and pleasure in something.”

It seems as though there are 3 basic types of meanings for the word “love”. 

1. Affection, would be applicable from 1 individual to another. The word “affection” implicates it should perhaps not be applicable towards an object or activity, only towards an individual, since “affection” is usually intended to mean, towards another living thing. The root cause of this likely developed instinctually, for groups of similar animals to stay together, and help one another, being beneficial for their survival. Even though the root cause seems to be instinctual, just like other emotions, the post-perception of this positive feedback trigger, requires a state of mind resulting from the initial trigger. I explained more of the perception required for emotion, in a recent post; Emotional Perception. If “deep affection” is part of this emotion, this indicates that this type of love would likely mostly only be used by humans, whom have sufficient ability for a deep comprehensive perspective. 

2. Romantic attachment, would also only be applicable from 1 individual to another. The difference from the 1st type, would be the romantic aspect. The root cause of this, likely developed from instinctual triggers causing attraction for the benefit of reproduction of the species. Affection would be more applicable to multiple members of a group, whereas attraction would usually be more focused on fewer members for means of reproduction. If “deep” is considered for romantic attachment, as well as the definition including the term “someone”, then it also seems to require in depth perception, and indicate mostly only humans, for this emotion. The post-perception also seems to commonly include passionate caring and valuing of the other person, by our typical interpretation of this type. The short technical definition which I used, is missing this portion, but that seems to often be a relevant component in the meaning of this type of love, and is often specified with the term “in love”. This would require additional comprehension of concepts, for the person in love, rather than only deep romantic attraction.

3. Interest and pleasure, should be applicable to mostly anything which an individual enjoys. It could be felt towards objects or activities, besides other individuals. This seems like the most basic and widely applicable type of love. As it doesn't seem to involve “deep” perception or comprehension of factors, it should have good potential for any animals to feel this type of love. The root instinctive cause of this trigger, would likely be basic positive reinforcement, to cause an individual to pursue something beneficial.
   

So, with these 3 types, the 1st 2 (Affection & Romantic attachment), seem to indicate love from an individual to another, and if this emotion of love is considered to be an in depth perception, would likely mostly be exclusive to humans. The 3rd type (Pleasure), seems to be a more basic and general result of instinctual reinforcement triggers, to pursue the factors involved in the situation. As it seems to have a lot of varying meanings and interpretations for the word, it should be helpful to understand some of these distinctions, of Love.