This is made in philosophy bites with me David Edmonds and me Nigel Warberton.

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Philosophy bites.com. Philosophy bites is made in association with the Institute of Philosophy.

For philosophers, almost no subject is off limits to scrutiny.

In philosophy Bites we've discussed a philosophy of humour, of friendship, even the philosophy of wine.

Today a topic that's been investigated by philosophers for two and a half millennia.

Love.

Is there anything in common between the love for another person and the love of philosophy? Between the love of friendship and the love of wine?

It's not immediately obvious that there is. But Simon May, visiting professor at King's College London, an author of a recent book on love, says all forms of love do have a similar basic structure.

Simon May, welcome to Philosophy Bites. Thank you.

The topic we're going to focus on is love.

Can love be defined?

Well, many people these days say that love cannot be defined,

and indeed to try to define it is to

denature it or to undermine it to destroy the very thing you're trying to define and I

think that that is just a local view that is a residue of of late romanticism which set great store by feeling

and believe that feelings are undermined by thinking about them.

So you're saying love can be defined?

I am saying love can be defined indeed love has a long history of definition for most of its

history if we go back to Plato for example or even pre-Plato to Greek thinkers like Empedocles.

Love was very much regarded a susceptible definition and was defined.

So within philosophy, it's also been a major topic of interest. It's not just that it's been defined,

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