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A Comparative Study of the Concept of Love in the Philosophies of Avicenna and Schopenhauer: From Good-Centeredness to the Will Oriented Toward Survival

    Authors

    1 PhD Candidate, Department of Islamic Philosophy and Theology, Faculty of Theology, Shahid Rajaee Teacher Training University, Tehran, Iran

    2 Associate Professor, Department of Philosophy, Theology, and Ethics, Faculty of Theology, Payam-e Noor University, South Tehran Campus, Tehran, Iran

,

Document Type : Research

Abstract

This study adopts an analytical-comparative approach to explore the concept of love in the philosophical systems of Avicenna and Schopenhauer. Avicenna examines love through three distinct lenses: the medical—viewing it as an obsessive disorder akin to melancholia; the philosophical—considering it a principle underlying the preservation of existents; and the mystical—interpreting chaste love as a means of inner purification. Schopenhauer, in turn, articulates love across three domains: sexual love, understood as a deceptive mechanism serving the preservation of the species; the will-to-live, as a force permeating all of existence; and pure love, manifested as compassion and a path to redemption. The findings highlight a parallel in the universality of love and will across all beings, while revealing a fundamental divergence in their metaphysical foundations: Avicenna’s ontology is rooted in the primacy of the good, whereas Schopenhauer’s worldview is grounded in the primacy of suffering. As the first comprehensive comparative study of these two thinkers on the subject of love, this research opens a new horizon for the philosophical understanding of love.

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Islamic Philosophical Doctrines
Volume 20, Issue 36 - Serial Number 36
June 2025
Pages 127-156
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