We want ‘I love you’ to mean forever. But neuroscientists claim that by three years into a relationship romantic activity in the brain has ceased. Can we only know love in short doses? Should we accept romance as fleeting and abandon long term commitments, or can we outwit evolution and make love last?
This week’s debate from the Institute of Art and Ideas considers the philosophy of love, with New College of the Humanities philosopher and ethicist Naomi Goulder, Screw the Fairytale author and broadcaster Helen Croydon, and transhumanist Anders Sandberg discussing whether we should rethink romance.
This video was produced by The Institute of Art and Ideas and is republished here with permission. It was filmed at HowTheLightGetsIn 2016 alongside 200 other debates and talks, all available for free at IAI TV. Their new podcast, Philosophy for our times, is available here.
What, exactly, is a “romantic activity in the brain”. The imagination wanders…
But seriously, the propensity to confuse simple neural phenomena (or even worse, mere blood flow in regions of the brain) with circumstantially “associated” emotional or physical experiences, by labelling them with metaphorical equivocations like “romantic activity”, is really dangerous. It’s encouraging a toxically cynical and anti-empathetical view of our fellow human beings.
You may THINK you love your wife, but REALLY, you don’t! Science tells me so!