By etymology, romance is the kind of love story described in the chivalry romance, a genre of ancient chicklit set in the middle age, with princes and knights and damsels in distress. There is a streak of wild exaggeration, particularly in idealising the loved woman.

Don Quixote is a parody of those novels. Centuries later, Madame Bovary also provides a warning to those who take this kind of literature too seriously.

Nowadays one can be in love and yet not flatter one's partner constantly.... Vice versa, not all flattery is sincere love. People do use exaggeration to make advances in others.

Mina - Parole Parole

I am probably not a romantic in the everyday sense because I dislike a lot of mainstream chart music and books which are about love etc, finding most of it rather 'slushy'. However, I have been told that I am a romantic in the sense of being a romantic, in being an idealistic thinker, in other words, a romantic philosopher. So, I would wonder about how the whole tradition of romantic philosophy sits in relation to the thread which you have started.

What is romance? Do I miss the point? Is there an ideal age for romance? — TiredThinker

Romance is being moved by someone. The ideal age is about twelve to twenty-five. The lucky last longer.

Generally I assume romance is exaggerating a person's importance to the cosmic scale and expressing as much. Any disagreements? — TiredThinker

I would suggest that, to the romantic, the object of their affection is perhaps equally important to them, or more valuable, than the cosmic. Hence the comparison. Romance is being inspired by someone, feeling your day improve merely at the sight of them, letting the idea, or memory of them guide you through what may otherwise be an insurmountable task (getting through a war to get home, etc.) The romantic relishes the company of the object of affection, without adding strings. It sweeps aside logic and rational and is entirely based on a feeling.

Romance is the opiate of the masses.

I would suggest that, to the romantic, the object of their affection is perhaps equally important to them, or more valuable, than the cosmic. — Book273

Indeed. those metaphors all suggest something, namely something insignificant (a pair of eyes)suddenly become something massive and deep. That is I think what happens in romance, or love. The cosmic becomes tangible in the romantic. Suddenly your day has a point because she is there, the world obtains a brighter color and more meaning because she is there. Those words are not believed, a metaphor is something else than a proposition with a truth value. Rather the metaphor is a poetic expression of a sense of meaning, suddenly the cosmic is there for a reason, namely the particular, that utter particular other.

Romantic philosophy in my view sees the overcoming of reason by feeling as a supreme form of the good, or being, being is not thinking, being is feeling. The above lines are in that sense a form of romantic philosophy in that the totality is reduced to the particular. It is not the ratio that seeks for unity that is paramount, but feeling that seeks alterity and needs another to be directed at.

The only one thing I would add about romantic philosophy is that it may not be all rainbows and sunsets. It may be also the decadent romance of encountering the shadowy figure of the gothic depths, like a fictional vampire romance story. Perhaps some would say that this is not romantic, but there can be dark romance and this applies to philosophy because it can be about encountering the depths and the heights.

It may be also the decadent romance of encountering the shadowy figure of the gothic depths, like a fictional vampire romance story. Perhaps some would say that this is not romantic, but there can be dark romance and this applies to philosophy because it can be about encountering the depths and the heights. — Jack Cummins

Of course and I would not call it decadent, I would also not call a gothic romantic story philosophy, but they do point to something inherently troubling in the idea of the particular becoming the cosmic. The flip side is that you know someone else, some insignificant and fickle just like yourself, holds the key to your world. The fear it causes is existential, hence all the theme of mirror and castles in gothic novels. The other, a mirror image of yourself and yet truly unknown manages to capture you, literally.

Sounds about right. Nothing is ideal after 25.

I would say half the females I work with help me through the day just by being present even though I don't necessarily fancy them in a romantic way. They just have unique but genuine qualities that I would take great offense if anyone ever changed them.

It's possibly no more than extreme behaviors driven by genetic predispositions stimulated by pheromones.

The dark unrequited romance of those contemplating suicide comes to mind, again, more common in the younger population.

Very much so.