What is love?
From the fields of science to sociology, politics and philosophy, here is what Stanford research says about love and romance, in the past and present day. For centuries, people have tried to understand the behaviors and beliefs associated with falling in love. What explains the wide range of emotions people experience? How have notions of romance evolved over time? As digital media becomes a permanent fixture in people's lives, how have these technologies changed how people meet? Examining some of these questions are Stanford scholars. From the historians who traced today's ideas of romance to ancient Greek philosophy and Arab lyric poetry, to the social scientists who have examined the consequences of finding love through an algorithm, to the scientists who study the love hormone oxytocin, here is what their research reveals about matters of the heart. How romantic love is understood today has several historical origins, says Robert Pogue Harrison , the Rosina Pierotti Professor in Italian Literature and a scholar of romance studies. For example, the idea of finding one's other half dates back to ancient Greece mythology, Harrison said. According to Aristophanes in Plato's Symposium , humans were once complete, "sphere-like creatures" until the Greek gods cut them in half. Ever since, individuals have sought after their other half. Here are some of those origin stories, as well as other historical perspectives on love and romance, including what courtship looked like in medieval Germany and in Victorian England, where humor and innuendo broke through the politics of the times. Where do people find love today?
