If philosophers and Indie artists have one thing in common, it is this: they talk a whole lot about love. Explore all the facets of the innately human emotion by listening to these hits.

Written by Emma Tanner

Illustrated by Micaela Galvez

Love: it’s something we all think about, dream about, hopelessly long for, and sometimes (miraculously) end up finding. It just wouldn’t be common to the human experience if everyone from Plato to girl in red didn’t ponder over (and write about) it every once in a while.

For those wishing to satisfy their cravings for pretentious intellectual pursuits and find some new playlist staples along the way, here’s a new way to understand some classic philosophical views on the crazy thing we call love.

Plato: Love is beauty

“we fell in love in october” by girl in red

In his philosophical text Symposium, Plato serves as the initiator for philosophical contemplation about what exactly love is. He presents the pleasant notion that love is that which transcends animalistic desire and lustful affections to understand those deep-seated emotions that transcend the physical realm. Plato explores the concept of eros: an idea utilized to identify that part of love characterized by intense passion and sexual desire. To Plato, eros is deeper than intense physical attraction. Instead the term indicates an individual’s attraction to another’s beauty, which reverberates the true beauty that exists in the world. In essence, Plato thinks we love someone because they reflect that interchangeable idea of beauty that we find in music, art, nature, and ideas. True love extends beyond the physical, the lustful, the animalistic –— instead showing us a glimpse of perfection within the eyes of that person which we love.

In “we fell in love in october,” girl in red reflects on her relationship with a woman and the experience of falling in love during the fall. Discussing themes of devotion and the intense emotions that come with newfound love, girl in red talks about finding beauty within the girl she loves. She says, “We fell in love in October / That’s why, I love fall / Looking at the stars / Admiring from afar.” girl in red reflects upon the intermingling of nature within the love she feels. The girl has become “[her] world,” aligning with Plato’s ideologies that the love we feel for another is a reflection of the ideal beauty we see within them. girl in red sees the beauty of the world within her lover’s eyes, knowing she’s “here to stay” with the girl she fell in love with in October.

Descartes: Love is error

“Must Stop (Falling in Love)” by ONR [featuring Sarah Barthel of Phantogram]

Taking a bit of a different approach to Plato’s view of love, Descartes believes love is — essentially — a big fat mistake. Misplaced passions, which we often confuse for love (being the stupid humans that we are), lead us away from our greater purpose in life. Love presents hazards for us as we attempt to properly maneuver our way through the world. Rather than guiding us towards our higher purpose, our passions (and therefore our love) lead us astray more often than they direct us. Since we don’t possess the proper knowledge to differentiate true love from misplaced passion, he warns us it’s probably better to just avoid the whole mess altogether. Don’t we all wish Descartes would’ve been around to tell us that one before we got gaslighted by a string bean skater boy?

In “Must Stop (Falling in Love)” by ONR featuring Sarah Barthel, the artists explore intense feelings of regret and remorse after their relationships don’t work out the way they planned. Discussing passions that end up doing more damage than good, “Must Stop (Falling in Love)” perfectly illustrates Descartes’ cautionary message that love is more often than not a mistake that guides us astray. Descartes would probably say ONR is spot on when they say, “I must stop falling in love / Stop falling in love / With everyone who f-cks me.”

Locke: Love is a moral duty

“Alewife” by Clairo

Locke was a big fan of the idea of “moral duty” and the innate obligations we have towards others as human beings. He believes that with our limited human understanding, we’re definitely too dumb to figure out a whole bunch of things about life, but one thing we can do is know how to love and serve others. Even though Locke views love as a sort of sacrificial duty, he also believes our happiness is directly tied to how well we serve others: “Happiness … is annexed to our loving others and to doing our duty, to acts of love and charity.” So, essentially, in order to be happy you need to love. Easier said than done, sir Locke.

In Clairo’s heart wrenching hit “Alewife,” she explores the kind of tenderness that drives us to look out for those we love. She expresses a deep appreciation for her friend Alexa, who stopped her from taking her life in the eighth grade. In an interview with Paper Magazine, Clairo said, “I didn’t want to make a sad song. I just wanted to get those emotions out. I needed to tell this story, about how this person got me out of such a horrible time, and how there are lots of people like her out there.” Building on Locke’s idea of love as a moral duty, Clairo’s “Alewife” tells the beautiful story of the loving duty we owe to one another and that which we must do to look out for the good of those around us.

Kant: Love is a feeling

“If I Didn’t Have You” –— Vista Kicks

To Kant, there are many different types of love, but he mainly argues in his Doctrine of Virtue that “love is a matter of feeling, not of willing … so a duty to love is an absurdity.” Ever heard that overused, age-old phrase that ‘love is a choice?’ Yeah, well, Kant kind of calls bullshit on that. For him, the idea of love is something that we feel as an emotion, not a moral duty or ethical requirement that we all possess as human beings. Kant says there is no innate necessity for such a love because it is a pure emotion, and no one can be required to feel something.

In “If I Didn’t Have You,” Vista Kicks explores the feelings of a love so intense that you simply cannot imagine your life without that person. In lines like “‘Cause if I didn’t have you / What would I be / If I didn’t have you / What could I see,” the group details a relationship that brings meaning to everything in life, illustrating that the feeling of love extends beyond the “choice” of loving someone. Saying that “I would be nothing without you” depicts how intense and all-consuming the emotion of love truly is.

The Philosophy of Love: Classical Views on Love as Indie Tracks