What is love?

Suppose a writer want to write a love story.  They loved the concept of romance and found it extremely heart warming.  However they had never actually been in a loving relationship.  The writer had read or watched endless quantities of romantic comedies and dramas, observed loved ones and asked questions about their relationship.  From all of the information they had gathered, the writer felt as if they had come to realize the true nature of love.  The writer was able to obtain all physical information possible on the topic, yet they had never actually fallen in love.  Is he or she really able to claim that they understand love?  Can a major league football coach able to play football?  The Platonic philosophy claims that only some subjects are permitted to claim that they understand the true meaning of love.  The Platonic philosophy behind love is seemingly the most accurate compared to any other theory pertaining to love.             

            So, what is love? Plato defended the Greek theory of Eros, which states one strives for beauty.  One is able to find beauty through a person, a hobby, idea, etc. and by discovering this particular beauty, one is able to find true beauty in the world.  The reason why Eros is such a precise definition is because it claims that love is both physical and mental.  There are theories that love is just strictly physical.  The reasoning why one may love another is only for mating reasons.  Another example is a mother who cares for her child.  Without that caring quality, the infant will most likely die without the constant acknowledgment and love from its mother.  For mating, without the desire to mate with another species, there would be no children.  This desire is a key element to Eros.  The strive for beauty, which could be through mating or taking care of a child, is a necessary quality for every species.  The mentality aspect of Eros is technically the proper form of love.  Although the physical quality is necessary, love is the exploration or reflection of an idea, which develops into the pursuit of true or ideal beauty. 

            One of the major questions that I have pondered is whether or not love is rational.  I truly believe that love exists but does it have any rationality.  After learning more about the philosophy of love, I believe that love is very rational.  The reason why it may appear irrational is due to how people act while in love.  Without love there would be no thrive for anything really.  We do the things we do because we enjoy doing them for the most part.  We love because we find beauty in the things we love and enjoy doing.  As stated before, love is a necessary quality to keep children alive and to mate.  The idea that people do irrational things while they are in love is actually perfectly rational.  Although some people may commit extreme acts to present their love for another, to them, they think that they are acting in a rational manner in order to keep their love thriving.  I am not agreeing with stalking or any other poor ways of presenting love, but I can say that what they think they are doing is rational.  Love is a beautiful, necessary and rational quality in which I am glad to have the ability feeling.