What Philosophy Is and What It Could Be

What Love Is and What It Could Be is a much needed essay by a contemporary philosopher toward an outline of a theory of romantic love.  

As an analytic philosopher Jenkins is not satisfied with what she refers to as the "romantic mystique", a kind of halo that has been placed around the topic of love that discourages examination. In this book the author lifts that shroud and in the process, shows us that our notions of romantic love are long overdue for questioning.  


The theory of romantic love Dr. Jenkins outlines is balanced and inclusive. While the book is ostensibly a defense of polyamory, (the approach to romantic love that supports multiple partners), Jenkin's theory of love embraces heteronormative realationships (traditional heterosexual, monogamous) and others as well.  While this book will undoubtedly be very popular with polyamorists, it contains plenty of interest for the thoughtful heteronormative listener open to questioning their basic assumptions about romantic love, where it comes from, and where it might take us.

An added bonus is the fact that this book is read by the author herself. Those who appreciate philosophical audiobooks will be all too familiar with the aggravation of listening to a book read by someone with a very impressive voice and a tragic lack of understanding of the text. This book is not affected by that problem and listeners will find that it's enjoyment is greatly enhanced by Dr. Jenkins thoughtful reading.

3 people found this helpful

So good!

Well researched and very smart. I highly recommend this for anyone wanting to dig in deeper to what love is (and what it could be).

1 person found this helpful

Oh, and what it could be!

Carrie Jenkins creates an engaging, provocative and enlightening narrative that is simultaneously scientifically sound and elegantly persuasive. The "dual-nature" model of love is well-developed and easy to grasp as it is interwoven as a foundation for understanding the "what it could be" theme of the 2nd half of the book. Though the model is by no means comprehensive as far as trying to contain all of the science to date on the biological part of the model in particular, it's sound for the purposes of argumentation throughout the book, and the non exhaustive nature of the background review is admissible given that such a scientifically rigorous approach might make the narrative much less readable and interesting.
Especially enjoyable and encouraging is Jenkins ability to identify so many of our collective, sometimes subconscious, assumptions about love and delicately unravel them such that they can be seen and understood with greater clarity.
It is evident and reassuring that her primary moral motivation in exploring and evaluating our social and biological theories about love is to mitigate the damage caused by many often unquestioned heteronormative, gender binary, monogamy myopic, classist,and sometimes racist normalized beliefs that have and continue to cause harm. Her incisive ability to bring distinctly troublesome, destructive, and sometimes viscerally disturbing viewpoints into the light and address them with clarity and sometimes jest, and entirely sans abrasiveness is admirable and enjoyable to read!
Her compassionate and liberating vision for what love could be is courageous and empowering for those who resonate with her argumentation as a result of their own personal struggles with social norms around love - it is inclusive and embracing of all forms of love and is simply heart blossoming to hear read aloud!