The Way of Love

by Luce Irigaray, Stephen Pluhacek (Translator), Heidi Bostic (Translator)

The Way of Love asks the question: How can we love each other? Here Luce Irigaray, one of the world's foremost philosophers, presents an extraordinary exploration of desire and the human heart.

If Western philosophy has claimed to be a love of wisdom, it has forgotten to become a wisdom of love. We still lack words, gestures, ways of doing or thinking to approach one another as humans, to enter into dialogue, to build a world where we can live together.

Genres: Philosophy, Feminism, Nonfiction, Love, Theory

198 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2003

About the author

Luce Irigaray is a Belgian-born French feminist, philosopher, linguist, psycholinguist, psychoanalyst and cultural theorist. She is best known for her works Speculum of the Other Woman and This Sex Which Is Not One. Presently, she is active in the Women's Movements in both France and Italy.

Reviews

[Michelle Caira · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am utterly fascinated by love and this book was simply divine. Very dense at times, and certainly requiring a little more attentive concentration... but a beautiful book I happen to come across by chance. ""I love to you" is more unusual than "I love you," but respects the two more: I love to who you are, to what you do, without reducing you to an object of my love." Wonderful!

[riley kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

The way our language works subjugates people in relationships. Irigaray is writing about how we can change that kind of language to be more respectful of the other person. Like saying "I love to you" instead of "I love you". She also doesn't think of a love relationship as something where you're finding your other half- instead she sees a relationship as a place where two entangled individuals meet. The individuals are irreducible to each other, they have mystery to each other.
I love these ideas, but I'm only giving three stars because it felt super repetitive and I wasn't loving the writing.

[Samantha · Rating 3 out of 5]

I rated this as 3 stars only because it was a little too dense at times, and I'm no longer a literary student so my critical senses have dulled. However, the times that I was able to follow, I was utterly captivated, and enjoyed the ideas posited very much--that love is not a concept, but a real concrete presence. She challenged my notions of philosophy where love is more of an abstract concept or force, and instead argues that Love has an immediate presence that starts within us and generates a spiritual force from there. Get ready to contend with the question, is "philosophy" = love of wisdom, or wisdom of love?

[Scott · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful, hopeful entries into possible ways of being between men and women. A loving invitation to consider fresh tenderness of language beyond the pre-determined parameters. Many indications of the possibility of two remaining two--between, to and for one another, from proximity to interval and back again. Men and women can find relations that are not predicated on appropriation typical of one treating the other as an extension of ego.

[Andy Jackson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Language as complex as the heart or the brain's operations, but simple and provocative at its core - how to relate to the other... No practical suggestions (perhaps because each context brings its own demands...)

[Benjamin Hill · Rating 2 out of 5]

Either the synopsis of this book lied to me, or I am not well versed enough in philosophy to understand what she was talking about. In any event, I personally believe the burden of communication is on the author and I think this book is far too convoluted.

[Andrew Fox · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful, like cutting a spiral.

[Margareta · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful, poetic rallying cry for women's liberation in discourse.