Natural Love: The Most Human and Personal Love in Pierre Rousselot’s Thought

Abstract

This article will attempt to integrate the concept of nature within an interpersonal anthropology through an analysis of a work written by Pierre Rousselot in 1908: The Problem of Love in the Middle Ages. An introduction will be followed by a biography of the author (n. 1), after which we will analyse the content of the work, which revolves around concepts of love that existed in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Rousselot groups these concepts around two positions: «ecstatic» love (n. 2) and «natural» love (n. 3). The author compares the two visions and comes down clearly in favour of the «natural» concept as the one that best expresses human dynamisms (n. 4). Finally, some of the limitations of the work will be explored (n. 5), based on the contrast between its avant-gardeness and the lack of intellectual tools available to the author (n. 5.1). The limitations are basically twofold: the relationship between nature and person (n. 5.2) and the ignorance of interpersonal purpose, which prevent the author from discovering the feasibility of a duality within personal unity (n. 5.3). Naturally, these limitations do not detract from the novelty that Pierre Rousselot’s contribution signified at that time.