Love’s Labours Lost? A Critical Scrutiny of Frankfurt’s Concept of Love

Harry Frankfurt maintains that love is a purely volitional state which neither includes cognitive states nor emotions. Frankfurt nevertheless assures us that only love can save a person’s psychological life from becoming unshaped and deprived. I question the fruitfulness as well as the viability of Frankfurt’s concept of love. My argument proceeds in three steps. Firstly, I point out that Frankfurt’s does not explicate our mundane concept but rather introduces a term of art labelled ‘love’. Secondly, I argue that this concept does not provides new illuminating descriptions or new revealing explanations. Finally, I argue that Frankfurt’s is structurally amiss since the very aspect that is most naturally supposed to play the organising role is lacking.