 |
customer@davidpublishing.com |
 |
3275638434 |
 |
 |
| Paper Publishing WeChat |
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
A Key Element for Human Well-Being: Ethical Love
Carmen Cozma
Full-Text PDF
XML 8 Views
DOI:10.17265/2159-5313/2026.05.006
“Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University of Iași, Iași, Romania
A pillar of understanding and developing human well-being is, without a doubt, what we call ethical love, on which we dwell in this paper. Actually, we are attempting to argue for the philosophical-moral significance of love, disclosing its major role in our life—particularly in the current context marked by the extremely rapid process of the digitalization of existence. Fully aware not only of the undeniable benefits of what is already the fifth industrial revolution but also of the risks facing contemporary humans—caught in an astonishing process of alienation from their own humanity—, we deem it essential to identify vital paths so that the necessary (yet so fragile) balance of specifically human existence not be lost. Given the stated purpose, our approach is supported by important contributions from the history of ideas regarding the extraordinary value of love, focusing on philosophical works ranging from the Presocratics to contemporary thinkers. Particular attention is paid to the types of love established in universal philosophy; each of these—and all of them combined—enabling the delineation and substantiation of the concept of “ethical love”—the concept we promote as representing a sine qua non condition for a meaningful human life.
philosophy of love, human well-being, philosophical concepts of love, ethical love, meaningful life
Carmen Cozma. (2026). A Key Element for Human Well-Being: Ethical Love. Philosophy Study, Sept.-Oct. 2026, Vol. 16, No. 5, 550-558.
Aristotle. ([c. 340 BC] 1988). Ēthika Nicomacheia/Ήθικὰ Νικομάχεια (Romanian translation: Etica Nicomahică). Bucharest: Scientific and Encyclopedic Publishing House.
Avicenna (Ibn Sīnā). ([c. 1015] 1945). Risalahfi’l-‘ishq (English translation: A treatise on love by Ibn Sina). Mediaeval Studies, 7(1), 208-228. doi:https://doi.org/10.1484/j.ms.2.305973
Bailey, O. (2022). Empathy and the value of human understanding. Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, 104(1), 50-65.
Bădescu, H. (2024). Proba oglinzii/The mirror test. Cluj-Napoca: Școala Ardeleană Publishing House.
Bădescu, H. (2026). La răsărit de paradis. Cronica unui deceniu/East of paradise: Chronicle of a decade. Cluj-Napoca: Școala Ardeleană Publishing House.
Bourgault, S., & Pulcini, E. (Eds.). (2018). Emotions and care: Interdisciplinary perspectives. Louvain: Peeters Publishers.
Comte-Sponville, A. (1995). Petit traité des grandes vertus. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France.
Cozma, C. (2001). Introducere în aretelogie. Mic tratat de etică/Introduction to aretelogy: A short treatise of ethics. Iași: “Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University Publishing House.
Cozma, C. (2025). Prolegomene la o etică aplicată cercetării științifice socio-umane în vremuri mozaicate haotic/Prolegomena to an ethics applied to socio-human scientific research in chaotically mosaic times. Bucharest: Paideia Publishing House.
Diels, H., & Kranz, W. (1952/1984). Die Fragmente der Vorsokratiker, griechisch und deutsch (English translation: The presocratic philosophers: A critical history with a selection of texts). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Diogenes Laërtius. ([c. 200-250] 1963). Bioi kai gnōmai tōn en philosophia eudokimēsantōn/Βίοι καὶ γνῶμαι τῶν ἐν φιλοσοφίᾳ εὐδοκιμησάντων (Romanian translation: Despre viețile și doctrinele filozofilor). Bucharest: Romanian Academy Publishing House.
Gray, J. (2019). The new tech totalitarianism: When companies know more about us than we know about ourselves. The New Statesman. Retrieved from https://www.newstatesman.com/culture/2019/02/the-new-tech-totalitarianism
Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus). ([23 BC] 1923). Carmina (odes). (Romanian translation: Odele și Epodele lui Horațiu). Bucharest: “România Nouă” Publishing House.
Ibn Hazm, A. M. A. ([1022] 1952/2012). Ṭawq al-ḥamāma/El collar de la paloma. Traducción, edición y notas de Emilio García Gómez. Madrid: Alianza Editorial.
Larchet, J.-C. (2016). Malades des nouveaux médias. Paris: Cerf.
Liddell, H. G., & Scott, R. (1843/1996). Greek-English lexicon: With a revised supplement (9th ed.). Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Lupasco, S. (1986). L’Homme et ses trois éthiques. Monaco: Rocher.
Lüfter, R. (2023). New moral subjects: Walking the line between autonomy and automaton. Philosophy Study, 13(11), 463-467. doi:10.17265/2159-5313/2023.11.001
Mackesy, C. (2019). The boy, the mole, the fox and the horse. London: Ebury-Penguin.
Noddings, N. (1986). Caring: A relational approach to ethics and moral education. Berkeley/Los Angeles/London: University of California Press.
Nussbaum, M. (1996). Compassion: The basic social emotion. Social Philosophy and Policy, 13(1), 27-58.
Ortega y Gasset, J. (1926/1939). Para la historia del amor. Estudios sobre el amor. Buenos Aires: Espasa-Calpe Argentina.
Ortega y Gasset, J. ([1926/1939] 1995). “Facciones del amor”; “Prólogo a ‘El collar de la paloma’ de Ibn Hazm de Córdoba”. Estudios sobre el amor. Prólogo y cronología de José Luis Molinuevo. Madrid/México/Buenos Aires/San Juan/Santiago/Miami: EDAF.
Philokalia/Φιλοκαλία (The Philokalia of the Neptic Fathers). ([4th-15th centuries] 2017-2021). Romanian translation: Filocalia sfintelor năzuințe ale desăvârșirii. Vols. 1-12. Bucharest: The Biblical and Orthodox Mission Institute Publishing House.
Plato. ([c. 360 BC] 2026). Timaios/Τίμαιος (English translation: Timaeus). Retrieved from https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Timaeus_(Jowett)
Plato. ([397-396 BC] 2011). Apología Sokrátous/Απολογία Σωκράτους (English translation: Apology of Socrates). Auckland, New Zealand: The Floating Press.
Roussell, P. (Ed.). (2016). The complete Pythagoras. Retrieved from https://archive.org/details/TheCompletePythagoras/mode/2up
Scheler, M. (1913/1970). Zur Phänomenologie und Theorie der Sympathiegefühle und von Liebe und Hats (English translation: The nature of sympathy). Hamden, CT: Archon Books.
Slote, M. (2007). The ethics of care and empathy. London: Routledge.
Stein, E. (1917/1989). Zum Problem der Einfühlung (English translation: On the problem of empathy). The collected works of Edith Stein, Volume 3. Washington, DC: ICS Publications.
Tymieniecka, A.-T. (1988-2000). Logos and life. Books 1-4. Dordrecht/Boston/London: Kluwer Academic Publishers.
Tymieniecka, A.-T. (1995). Measure and the ontopoietic self-individualization of life. Phenomenological Inquiry, 19, 26-51.
Vallor, S. (2016). Technology and the virtues: A philosophical guide to a future worth wanting. New York: Oxford University Press.
Vlăduțescu, G. (2012). Limbajul filosofilor greci. Presocraticii/The language of the Greek philosophers: The presocratics. Bucharest: Romanian Academy Publishing House.
Xie, K. F. (2015). Kindness ethics: A possible approach to virtue ethics. Education Journal, 4(5), 189-193.