The Biological Relationship Between Sex and Love
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
7-1-1991
Abstract
From the perspective of the individual human being, love and sex are certainly distinct phenomena (although a happy concomitance is often observed) that can be, and often are, pursued independently of one another. Taking a broad species approach rather than an individual one, the human sciences appear to be coalescing around the position that love is an epiphenomenon of sex, a position exemplified by the statement that "Love is a snare set by sex to ensure the survival of the species."1 While I agree with the general thrust of this proposition, I view love as being much more than a simple derivative of sex. Love springs from sex, and thus shares with it a certain oneness of essence; but love pursues an independent existence, and in doing so elevates and ennobles that from which it sprang.
Publication Information
Walsh, Anthony. (1991). "The Biological Relationship Between Sex and Love". Free Inquiry in Creative Sociology, 11(3), 20-24.