• Articles
  • Contributeurs
  • Blog
  • A propos des Cahiers
  • Prochain numéro
Les Cahiers Menu
  • Le Voyage
  • La rue
  • Le baroque
  • Le fake
  • Manger ensemble
  • L'amour
  • Technomagie
  • Le luxe
  • La barbarie

Theorizing universal Love

L'amour
Une contribution de Ronan MacDubhghaill
cei4_ronanmacdubhghaill
Acheter
  • fr
  • en
  • it
  • de
  • es
  • pt

“What would be my spontaneous attitude towards the universe? It’s a very dark one. The first thesis would have been, a kind of total vanity; there is nothing, basically.
I mean it quite literally.
Ultimately, there are just some fragments, some vanishing things. If you look at the universe, it’s one big void. But then how do things emerge? Here I feel a kind of spontaneous affinity to quantum physics, where, you know, the idea there is that the universe is a void, but a kind of a positively charged void. And then, particular things appear when the balance of the void is disturbed. And I like this idea of spontaneity very much. That, the fact that it’s not just nothing - things are out there; it means something went terribly wrong. That, what we call creation is a kind of a cosmic imbalance, cosmic catastrophe, that things exist by mistake. And I’m even ready to go to the end and to claim that the only way to counteract it is to assume the mistake and go to the end. And we have a name for this: it’s called Love.
Isn’t love precisely this kind of cosmic imbalance? I was always disgusted with this notion of ‘I love the world, universal love’ - I don’t like the world. I basically am somewhere in between “I hate the world”, and I’m indifferent towards it. But the whole of reality, it’s just it, it’s stupid - it is out there - I don’t care about it.
Love for me is an extremely violent act. Love is not “I love you all”. Love means “I pick out something”, and I - you know, it’s again this structure of imbalance. Even if this something is just a small detail, a fragile individual, person, I say, I love you more than anything else.
In this quite formal sense, love is evil”.
The above is from the documentary “Zizek”. The specific clip is available if you search for Zizek on Love in Youtube.
Love, then, is a violence, and it has the same feeling as violence. It is immediate, and in that immediacy, you can never create the proper distance to differentiate the truth from the fiction. This comes only later.
Love is a violence, and a silence, but only if it is of the truth.
This attitude towards love, spontaneously spoken, is telling of the problematic and elusive nature of love as a topic of theorization. This has been the case for Philosophers for a long time. The great big beardy grandfather of philosophy, Socrates, tells us in the Symposium that “the only thing I say I know, is the art of love”. This rather grandiose claim should be seen as a sidelong hint that, at least to the greeks, the urge to love (erôs) and the urge to philosophize (erôtan, to ask questions) have an etymologic connection. This connection is explicitly exploited in the Cratylus. His death, then, shows us that Socrates’ knowledge of love was then as limited as that of any of us when he conveys in the Apology that he knows himself to be wise “in neither a great nor a small way”.
Thus, the urge to understand the elusive nature of being (philosophy) shares the violent potentialities of Love.
On this, Derrida said : “I have really nothing to say about love. At least pose a question. I can’t examine ‘love’ just like that”. After some time spent, apparently in thought, he continues to say “I have an empty head on love in general”. Unsurprising, perhaps. Another pause, and he says “Do I love you, or do I love something about you; do I love someone because of the absolute singularity that they are, I love you because you are you, Or do I love your qualities, your beauty, your intelligence?” A better, but in the end, inadequate point. Ultimately, and after a great many words, the conclusion was : “Fidelity is threatened by the difference between the who and the what”. Jacques Derrida (in interview).
This is important: the difference between the who and the what. Love is an indelible part of the human experience, and as such it is as difficult to put into words as that experience itself. However, in general terms, surely we could admit that throughout that experience, we are caught somewhere on a continuum, both ends equally unattainable to us.
To use again Zizek’s analogy of the universe from the perspective of quantum physics is instructive. In its beginning, it is a violence so compelling so as to conjure up all of creation. In its end, it the silence of stars spinning endlessly beyond each others reach. Where we exist, is what astronomers call the goldilocks zone - “not too hot, not too cold, just right”. We exist in between the ambivalence of the who, the absolute moment of violent creation, and the what, the silence of dear stars. This is where things are still free to form and un-form.
The whole process of creation is coextensive with human thought.
Love, like the universe, is particular, not universal.
The universe, the entirety of existence, is love.

  • portrait_ronanmacdubhghaill
    Rónán MacDubhghaill est chercheur doctorant au CEAQ, sous la co-tutelle de l’Université de Londres. Ses recherches portent sur la mémoire collective, l’imaginaire et tous les processus de la radicalisation, en particulier soumis aux influences d’Internet. Rónán est Directeur culturel de Cacao, revue originellement publiée en chinois mandarin et en anglais, dont il gère l’édition franco-anglaise. Dans ses temps libres, il se livre passionnément à la lecture, à l’écriture, et au whiskey.
plus
●
logo_white
  • Français

    Les Cahiers de l'Imaginaire sont une revue de sciences humaines fondée en 1988 par Gilbert Durand et Michel Maffesoli.

    Les thèmes qui s'y sont succédés depuis sont dans toutes les têtes. Le corps, les socialités mystérieuses, les révélations politiques, les îles et la divinité continue, l'algèbre secrète des rêves, les formes infatigables du quotidien et de la fiction, les époques et leurs magies contradictoires, la fête et l'âme composent ces pages précieuses.

    Les Cahiers européens de l'Imaginaire perpétuent ces idées : trouver les mots les moins faux pour dire les imaginaires contemporains, porter et peupler nos mythologies tout à la fois, et donner à la curiosité de chacun la langue de l'autre, pour accompagner les mouvements de vie de l'Europe.

  • Italiano

    Les Cahiers de l'Imaginaire sono una rivista di scienze umane e sociali fondata da Gilbert Durand e Michel Maffesoli nel 1988.

    I temi da allora trattati risuonano sonoramente nel nostro pensiero: il corpo, l'attrazione sociale, le rivelazioni politiche, le isole immaginarie, le divinità, l'alchimia dei sogni, le forme torrenziali del quotidiano e della finzione, le magiche contraddizioni della storia e le multiple festività che marcano il nostro tempo popolano le preziose pagine della rivista.

    Les Cahiers européens de l'Imaginaire tentano e si dilettano a trovare le parole meno false possibile per nominare gli immaginari contemporanei, a decriptare le mitologie emergenti nella vita quotidiana e a porre in relazione le lingue e le culture presenti nel vecchio continente accompagnandone le trame e il vissuto.

  • Castellano

    Les Cahiers de l'Imaginaire son una revista de ciencias humanas fundada en 1988 por Gilbert Durand y Michel Maffesoli.

    Los temas que sucedieron su fundación están en todos los pensamientos. El cuerpo, las socialidades misteriosas, las revelaciones políticas, las islas y la continua divinidad, el algebra secreta de los sueños, las formas infatigables del cotidiano y de la ficción, las épocas y sus magias contradictorias, la fiesta y el alma, componen sus preciadas paginas.

    Les Cahiers européens de l'Imaginaire perpetúan esas ideas: encontrar las más adecuada de las palabras para expresar los imaginarios contemporáneos, al mismo tiempo que llevar y poblar nuestras mitologías, y dar a la curiosidad de cada uno de nosotros la lengua del otro, acompañando así los movimientos de vida en Europa.

  • English

    Les Cahiers de l'imaginaire is a social science review, founded in 1988 by Gilbert Durand and Michel Maffesoli.

    It explores the varied meanings within and beyond the body, mysterious social systems, political revelations, the isolated and continuous divinities. The secret algebra of dreams, the inexhaustible forms of the mundane and the fictitious, the ages and their contradictory magic, the festival and the soul are the stuff that fill its precious pages.

    Les Cahiers européens de l'Imaginaire perpetuates these ideas: finding the least false words to describe the contemporary imagination, sustaining and populating our mythologies, sharing our respective languages with each-other, in concert with the movements of the living Europe.

  • Portuguès

    Les Cahiers de l'Imaginaire é uma revista de ciências humanas fundada em 1988 por Gilbert Durand e Michel Maffesoli.

    Desde sua fundação, são abordados temas de diversos campos do pensamento. O corpo, as relações sociais misteriosas, as revelações políticas, as divindades isoladas e contínuas, a álgebra secreta dos sonhos, as incansáveis formas do quotidiano e da ficção, as diversas épocas e respectivas magias contraditórias, a festa e a alma fazem parte de suas preciosas páginas.

    Les Cahiers européens de l'Imaginaire perpetuam tais idéias: encontrar as melhores palavras para expressar os imaginários contemporâneos, ao mesmo tempo em que suporta e povoa nossas mitologias, e oferece à curiosidade de cada um a palavra do outro para acompanhar, assim, os movimentos de vida da Europa.

  • Deutsch

    Les Cahiers de l'Imaginaire ist eine sozialwissenschaftliche Revue, gegründet 1988 von Gilbert Durand und Michel Maffesoli.

    Sie adressiert Themen, die sich in allen Köpfen wiederfinden. Der Körper, mysteriöse soziale Systeme, politische Enthüllungen, isolierte und kontinuierliche Göttlichkeit, die geheime Algebra der Träume, die unerschöpflichen Formen des Alltäglichen und des Fiktiven, die verschiedenen Zeitalter und ihre widerspruchsvolle Magie, das Fest und die Seele füllen ihre wertvollen Seiten.

    Les Cahiers européens de l'Imaginaire führen diese Ideen fort: die treffendsten Worte zu finden, um das zeitgenössisch Imaginäre zu beschreiben, unsere Mythologien gleichzeitig zu erhalten und zu nähren, und unsere verschiedenen Sprachen miteinander zu teilen, im Gleichschritt mit dem Puls des europäischen Lebens.

© 1988-2015 Les Cahiers européens de l'imaginaire • Contact us on Twitter and Facebook • Website made by Hands