Originally posted by chithappens
Well I'm just not sure why when it is two people we call it "love" and "romance" but it is just savage lust when it comes to animals.There are certain standards in philosophy as to what makes a sentient being but those standards don't necessarily cover emotions, certainly not the notion of love. And, as shown so far by the posts, most people find it idiotic to even think an animal could "love" another animal.
it really, imho, comes to a matter of definition.
I'm not an expert on this, but it really matters if love, to you, must be defined as the human condition (with all our cultural and linguistic things not really seen in animals) or if love is a measure of emotional response to a creature.
blah, hopefully this doesn't just go all over the place. I think monogamy probably has a survival advantage for genes, especially in animals like humans that require a large investment in raising by the parents. For instance, human take around a year to walk, cows are born on their feet. Therefore, the parents of the human must be around to raise the child, and because of genetic survival, it doesn't make sense for you to invest into a child that isn't yours. Thus, monogamy increases the liklihod that the genes you invest in raising are your own, and increases the chance they will be passed on. While I'm unaware if the relationship between length of child development and parental monogamy is present in nature, there are other monogymous animals, the penguin iirc.
It is likely that, as a species, we have something that is also likely shared with animals, which drives us to be with one person (its not a 100% certain thing at all, just a drive). The purpose of this drive is for sexual reproduction.
In human culture, that drive is accompanied by both social and linguistic definitions, which are not going to influence it, as much, in animals. If the drive is defined as "love" or if it is the cultural stuff. Very few animals give gifts, courtship is a "mating dance" or something, which may be analogus to humans, but is not "love" in the same way that writing poetry and buying presents are, if one uses the anthromorphic definition of love.
I don't know if that is an answer. I personally think this might be making too much of what humans really call love. I think a lot of people have very serious illusions about their "lovers" or what "love" is supposed to be, when much of it, imho, is probably defined better in the way we would talk about animal sexuality.