Reimagining Love: Philosophy and the Heart of Modern Life

An emotion or an action, a kind of madness or a state of well-being, a measurable brain activity or a spiritual phenomenon: What is the truth about love? Richard White explores this elusive concept as a profound path of self-overcoming – a turning away from narcissism, fear, and isolation toward greater openness, receptivity, and compassion. Reimagining Love unfolds in four movements, through the fear of love as expressed in Stoicism and the modern achievement-oriented self; the awakening of love described by Plato, J.W. von Goethe, Rainer Maria Rilke, and others; the work of love and the cultivation of its virtues; and love as active compassion, a way of engaging with the world attentively, courageously, and non-possessively. White unites theory and practice, arguing that personal love can open outward into universal compassion, echoing the Buddhist ideal of karu?a – the selfless embrace of another’s suffering. Central to this vision is love’s spiritual dimension. It is not religious as such, but a source of meaning grounded in our sense of connection to something greater: nature, truth, justice, or the sacred itself. Written with clarity and quiet authority, Reimagining Love offers a meditation on the ethical and existential significance of love for denizens of a disenchanted world.