According to Aristotle, Love at First Sight Does Not Exist

June 7th, 2017 at 2:10am

Okay… let’s be honest here. You have all—at least one time in your lives—been captivated by a complete stranger’s beauty. Since you are constantly around people, it is inevitable. But what happens when you cannot stop thinking about the stranger who does not even know you exist? You start to think, “Did I fall in love at first sight?”

According to the great Aristotle, what people confuse for “love at first sight” is not actually love, but lust—which eventually becomes an obsession. Aristotle’s theory of love (more like the theory of fixation to me) goes as follows:

1—A person meets a physically attractive person.

2—The image of the beautiful person starts to affect their imagination.

In their mind, the person becomes desirable.

3—Pleasure derails their mind.

It conjures the image of the person and it overestimates it. In other words, when you think about a person over and over again your mind creates an image better than the original. You think this person is perfect and flawless (even though we all know that no one is!).

4. The person has the urge to possess the beautiful object because it is so precious.

When they cannot have him/her, it disturbs their physiological and psychological state of mind. Today, this basically means that the person becomes depressed at the fact that their love is unrequited.

In a nutshell, Aristotle believed that when a person could not stop thinking about someone who was practically a stranger—they were not in love, but obsessed with the person’s beauty.

So girls (or guys), if you ever feel like you are going crazy in love over someone without really knowing that person, perhaps it is just their beauty you like. Take the time to think and reflect this through. Most importantly, if you feel like you are going insane over a hot stranger whom you could never have a chance with for one reason or another, don’t forget to constantly remind yourself that you are awesome and lovely just the way you are.

What are your thoughts on Aristotle’s theory of love? Do you agree, that love at first sight is non-existent? Or can it truly happen? Leave your comments below!

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