In the article, on the basis of the problem approach, a historical-philosophical reconstruction of the understanding of love in the movement of the second sophistic is performed. Its features and contribution to the development of the implicit philosophy of love are considered. It is proved that in the movement of the second sophistic, for the first time in historical and philosophical discourse, we can see an explicit thought about love not just as a feeling, but as a huge work, which involves incredible efforts and tensions of the participants in love discourse. The thinkers of the second sophistic also emphasized the rationality of the nature of love, thus such an understanding of love significantly raises it to such a height among all other human feelings. There- fore, love, which is able to know everything around and helps a person to know the Other, is not mercantile or evaluative, but creates in the human soul responsibility for the one she loves. It is revealed that the peculiarity of the explication of love in the second sophistic is also the understanding of love as a phenomenon of power, and the discourse of love as a discourse of war and conquest. It is these sentences that largely determined the course of development of the Renaissance philosophy of love and the emergence of courtly culture. It is shown that it is this school of the history of ancient philosophy that paid great attention to understanding parental love, emphasizing not just the connection and proximity to the animal world, but revealing the timeless depth and meaning of the relationship between children and parents.