The Public and Social Character of Love in the History of Sociological Thought

Abstract

The starting point of this paper is represented by the research carried out by the study group of Social-One (Iorio, 2014; 2015; Araujo et al., 2015; Araujo et al., 2016; Martins, Cataldi, 2016), which recognised a public dimension and not only the intimate and personal dimension of love in today’s society. Taking as a reference point the work of Luc Boltanski, L’amour et la justice comme competences (1990), the research of the study group has proposed to widen the circle of sharing to go beyond the input from classic sociologists with a new conceptual category of love linked to agape. This path has actually already been begun by some well-known scholars – including Simmel (1907; 1921; 1989; 2001), Sorokin (1954), Giddens (1992), Luhman (1987) and Honneth (1990) – on the shoulders of whom it has already been possible to see the historical path of the transformation of the concept. However, the “agape” action brings something new to the social sciences: agape, in fact, introduces emerging characteristics, which at the same time, is linked to and transcends the way love is understood as “eros” and “philia”, defining itself as a key to gaining insight into a primarily empirical social reality, based on unconditional love of one’s neighbour. On this basis, the paper traces the path that the concept of love has had in the history of sociological thought, enlightening its public and social characters and proposing a research project based on love as agape.