The first condition is that it has no conditions. This isn't hard. — John Days
Without conditions, what reason do we have to distinguish between good behavior and bad? Just because a mother says, "I love my son unconditionally despite him bullying his class mate" doesn't mean he should be exempt from facing the consequences of his actions.. That would be UNloving to the person he bullied. Love requires that there should be SOME kind of consequence for bad behavior, even though the person being judged is still loved while being punished. — John Days
Actually, I strongly believe that love cannot be love without justice or righteousness, so it may be that our disagreement is based on a misunderstanding of what you think "we" are talking about. — John Days
My brother is a very good uncle, but he has never had kids. Once, when my children were running around being kids - yelling, crying, making noise, he said "I have trouble with all this emotionalism," by which he meant emotion. Calling it "emotionalism" let's you put distance between yourself and feelings. — T Clark
The closest I have come to unconditional love is with my children. — T Clark
I like it when they show their love for me — T Clark
don't want anything from them — T Clark
You will probably not be thinking, "Ok, they are terrible parents, but at least they have unconditional love for their kids" because the conditions for what it means to be loving are not met. — John Days
I think this illustrates my original point; unconditional love does not exist. Any attempt to define what love is requires conditions which separate it from concepts which are not loving, like greed, fear, and pride. — John Days
It exists, it is just rare. Such feelings might be felt between parents and children, between siblings, between partners, and surely other situations. Some feel it with their pets. It's a feeling that simply survives all challenges. — Rich
I'm responding to the OP's primary idea. Yes, there are times when we love but then it goes, but other types of love just v survives no matter what. It is just a special feeling and bond. — Rich
The first condition is that they must be YOUR children. — John Days
I like it when they show their love for me — T Clark
Which is a condition defining what you like. — John Days
How could a loving father have no expectations for his children? The expectations may not be perfect, but they will still be there as a result of the love you feel for them. Like, if your kid decides, "I don't want to school anymore", you will probably say, "Too bad, I'm your parent and I know what's good for you, so you WILL go to school" or something along those lines. If your kid says, "I don't want to brush my teeth or shower" you will probably MAKE him do those things because you have a better understanding of why those things are important. To say you don't want your kid love you or at least listen to you makes no sense. — John Days
It exists, it is just rare. Such feelings might be felt between parents and children, between siblings, between partners, and surely other situations. Some feel it with their pets. It's a feeling that simply survives all challenges. — Rich
It may be that we are talking past one another. I'm suggesting that conditions cannot be separated from the concept of what love is. As soon as you try to define what love is, you must have conditions which separate it from other things like indifference or hate. — John Days
I think you are playing word games--the delight of getting people to agree that something unconditional must have conditions. It's an empty exercise. — Bitter Crank
I disagree. Realizing that all things, including love, are conditional, we might better respect those conditions. — praxis
I think you are playing word games--the delight of getting people to agree that something unconditional must have conditions. — Bitter Crank
I will love you IF you obey -- otherwise, not. I will love you IF you make me proud of you -- otherwise, not. and so on. Some people have quite conditional love for their own children, spouses, parents, etc. — Bitter Crank
God's love is said to be unconditional--Agape. — Bitter Crank
Unconditional love is the bread of heaven — Bitter Crank
However, those are not the kind of conditions that the word unconditional means in the context. — BlueBanana
Exactly. We say the love is unconditional, yet we define it with conditions. Maybe it is just semantics, but if that's so, why the insistence on the contradiction? I believe it's because there's a whole lot of room for hiding in contradictions. — John Days
You can be charitable, for instance, but if the act of giving is only because you know that in doing so people will acknowledge you for being wonderful, the intent or motivation behind the act is false and the condition has been set, namely that you are only giving love to receive appreciation for it. — TimeLine
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