Contemporary philosopher Alain de Botton explains why love and philosphy are more like an awkward blind date than the perfect match:

“Philosophers have not traditionally been impressed: the tribulations of love have appeared too childish to warrant investigation, the subject better left to poets and hysterics. It is not for philosophers to speculate on hand-holding and scented letters. (Arthur) Schopenhauer was puzzled by the indifference.

”We should be surprised that a matter that generally plays so important a part in the life of man has hitherto been almost entirely disregarded by philosophers, and lies before us as a raw and untreated material.”

The neglect seemed the result of a pompous denial of a side of life that violated man’s rational self-image. Schopenhauer insisted on the awkward reality. Love ”interrupts every hour the most serious occupations, and sometimes perplexes for a while even the greatest minds. It does not hesitate … to interfere with the negotiations of statesmen and the investigations of the learned… . It demands the sacrifice sometimes of … health, sometimes of wealth, position and happiness.” “

(The New York Times, Feb. 2000, adapted from his book ‘The Consolations of Philosophy’)

— From London.

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