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International Studies in Phenomenology and Philosophy

Book | Chapter

211596

On "love at first sight"

Christian Maurer

pp. 160-174

Abstract

The expression "love at first sight" (henceforth "LAFS" — with quotation marks) is quite common in the English language, in both literary and colloquial use. It has direct equivalents in other European languages, for example, in the German expression "Liebe auf den ersten Blick" and, less directly, in the French expression "coup de foudre." It belongs to a cluster of expressions that are typically thought to concern the early stages of romantic love. Expressions like "falling in love" ("tomber amoureux" in French, 'sich verlieben" in German), "infatuation," "amour fou," "mad love," and so on give further evidence of the rather rich vocabulary we use to speak about phenomena associated with the emergence of romantic love, whether the engendered processes result in a profound, reciprocal, and stable loving relationship or not. I take it that the expression "LAFS" refers to some phenomenon, which is the main topic of this chapter. I shall refer to it as LAFS — without quotation marks.

Publication details

Published in:

Maurer Christian, Milligan Tony, Pacovská Kamila (2014) Love and its objects: what can we care for?. Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan.

Pages: 160-174

DOI: 10.1057/9781137383310_11

Full citation:

Maurer Christian (2014) „On "love at first sight"“, In: C. Maurer, T. Milligan & K. Pacovská (eds.), Love and its objects, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 160–174.