Love and Its Formations According to Different Civilizations: A Philosophical and Sociological Analysis

Love has historically been one of the most persistent and transformative themes in both individual experience and intellectual history. A psychologicalen conceptualized as a metaphysical force, an ethical concern, and a psychological impulse, love has also functioned as a culturally regulated social phenomenon shaped by institutions, moral systems, and gender norms. This article offers a conceptual and comparative analysis of love by tracing its philosophical definitions, its civilizational transformations in Western and Islamic traditions, and its sociological reformulations in late modernity. Drawing on key theoretical perspectives-especially Giddens’s notion of the “pure relationship,” Bauman’s theory of “liquid love,” and Illouz’s analysis of “emotional capitalism”-the study argues that love has shifted from religious-metaphysical frameworks toward forms increasingly mediated by modern institutions, consumer culture, and reflexive self-identity. The article concludes that love remains both an existential constant and a historically variable social construction, deeply intertwined with the production of intimacy, the regulation of sexuality, and the cultural reproduction of gender.