The Cog of Love

Photographer - Tobi Brun

Birth is not the beginning of life. It is its continuance. Life is a self-sustaining process that began about 4 billion years ago. Living cells are constantly being renewed, some more frequently than others. Life is relayed by the individual members of each species, in exclusivity, to the next generation of the same species.

The most plausible explanation of the genesis of life appears to have been provided by the ancient Greek philosopher, Democritus (460 BC – 370 BC) who is reported to have observed that “Everything in the universe is the fruit of chance and necessity”.

Jacques Monod, the French biologist, a 1965 Nobel Prize winner, later accredited and developed that theory in his book “Le hasard et la nécessité” (Chance and Necessity) published in 1970. From this it is deduced that “Life is a spontaneous, evolutive, sensitive and reproductive process triggered by the fortuitous encounter of complementary elements of matter and energy in a favourable environment” (chance in this context being understood as meaning a “random variable” and necessity an “inevitable” event).

The invasion of life on Earth has been overwhelming. Every nook and cranny of the planet has been colonised – from the unfathomable depths of the deepest oceans to the summits of the highest mountains. According to the National Geographic Society :

“Scientists have estimated that there are around 8.7 million species of plants and animals in existence. However, only around 1.2 million species have been identified and described so far, most of which are insects. This means that millions of other organisms remain a complete mystery”.

But even though life is highly invasive, adaptable, and tenacious, Earth’s biodiversity is in jeopardy due to pollution, climate change, and population growth to such an extent that It is estimated that half of all species of life on Earth will be wiped out within the next century.

The fight for survival is engaged and mankind, like all other species, will also come under threat of extinction unless we somehow manage to reverse the current process of degradation and destruction of the ecosystem.

We know very little of the motors of life but observe, not without some apprehension, the gradual evolution of species due to biological processes such as mutation, natural selection, symbiosis, and genetic drift. Some of the motors, particularly so far as the animal kingdom is concerned, are to be found in the survival instinct which protects and preserves life allowing it to continue to prosper and propagate.

The survival instinct is part of what the biologists call our autonomic nervous system (ANS) or, more simply, our involuntary nervous system, which is a network of nerves that regulates unconscious body processes. It is the part of the peripheral nervous system responsible for regulating involuntary body functions such as heartbeat, breathing, blood pressure, body temperature, immune system, emotional responses, sexual responses, and many others.

The biologists have established that neurotransmitters and receptors are an integral part of the ANS. It appears, therefore, that what had previously been considered a purely physiological process (of “fight or flight”) involves much more than just unconscious body processes. It also involves unconscious mental processes. Intellectual, psychological, and sociological unconscious mental processes such as morality, altruism and love not only play a key role in the maintenance of peaceful and harmonious co-existence within society, but also in the preservation and propagation of life. They are just as much a part of the survival instinct as the unconscious body processes.

Like the involuntary body functions, the involuntary mental functions of morality, altruism, and love are all cogs that keep the wheel of life turning.

No doubt the specialists who carry out research on such natural processes have noted the correlation of these involuntary mental functions with the survival instinct but there appears to be no mention of it in any of the scientific and academic publications available to the general public. What is sure and certain is that it is not something that would be of the slightest interest to the authors of the plethoric popular literature of cheap paperbacks that deal ad infinitum with the apparently inexhaustible topics of crime and romance.

Involuntary body functions such as heartbeat, breathing, blood pressure, emotional and sexual responses are not love. They are not even signs of love. Many people, especially popular romance writers, confound these body functions with love and present them as such even though lovers are not the only ones who experience them. Rapists, paedophiles and all sorts of sex offenders, deviants, imposters, and profiteers experience them too.

Love is something else. It is not a physical function. It is a mental function which the American Psychological Association defines as “any cognitive process or activity, such as thinking, sensing, or reasoning”. Not all species have been endowed with mental functions by nature. They are the privilege of the animal kingdom of which humankind is an eminent member having descended from a common ancestor with the chimpanzees and gorillas about seven million years ago.

The essence of love is placing the well-being of another above all else irrespective of the cost to oneself and without the slightest expectation of anything in return.

Romance, passion, emotion, adoration, affection, possessiveness, religious considerations, love at first sight, kindness, gratitude, admiration, idolatry, generosity, physical attraction, sense of security, wealth, social status, intelligence, affinity, complementarity, companionship, respect, tenderness, projection, concern, care, sympathy, pity, empathy, endearment, warmth, friendship, attachment, loyalty, liking, soft spot – are just some of the many sentiments that may accompany love or, perhaps, be mistaken for love.

Love is not a passing whim or a fleeting impulse. Either love is or it is not. If it is, it always will be and if it is not, it never was. Love does not depend on the other. It depends solely on oneself.

Love plays an important role in maintaining the bond of heterosexual mating couples during the process of reproduction which, in the case of humans, takes about eighteen years from conception to maturity and autonomy. It plays a similar role with LGBT+ couples, some of whom adopt children or have children with the assistance of modern artificial reproductive techniques or through surrogacy.

Survival being the principal preoccupation of all animal species, including mankind, there is safety in numbers, which is a good incentive for forming a couple with someone you can trust. Love is not the only reason for forming a couple, it can be as much an alliance as anything else. By the same token, love can be shared just as well outside the couple as inside it and some couples even seem to fall in love with themselves, they look so much alike.

As for our kindred in the animal kingdom, given the current state of the art of science, we do not know for sure if they are capable of love as defined for humans but indications are they could well be, perhaps to a lesser extent as their reproduction cycle is much shorter than ours.

Marc Bekoff, professor emeritus of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Colorado, Boulder in the United States, recounts the story of two dogs: a female, Tika and a male, Kobuk :

« Late in life, Tika developed a malignant tumour and had to have her leg amputated. She had trouble getting around and, as she was recovering from the surgery, Kobuk wouldn’t leave Tika’s side. Kobuk stopped shoving her aside or minding if she was allowed to get on the bed without him. About two weeks after Tika’s surgery, Kobuk woke their mistress in the middle of the night. He ran over to Tika. Their mistress got Tika up and took both dogs outside, but they just lay down on the grass. Tika was whining softly, and their mistress saw that Tika’s belly was badly swollen. Their mistress rushed her to the emergency animal clinic in Boulder, Colorado, where she had life-saving surgery.

If Kobuk hadn’t fetched their mistress, Tika almost certainly would have died. Tika recovered, and as her health improved after the amputation and operation, Kobuk became the bossy dog he’d always been, even as Tika walked around on three legs ».

If, in fact, animals are capable of love as defined for humans, the difference in environments and lifestyles between wild animals and domesticated animals necessarily influences and determines their mating habits. Some mating habits are opportunistic and sporadic. Others are stable and regular. Yet others are monogamous lifetime relationships.

On this score, the similarities between us humans and our kindred in the animal kingdom are about as evident as the evolutionary differences that have shaped us all over the past seven million years or so. Though much has changed, we still have a lot in common. We continue to share 98.8% of our genome with the chimpanzees, 75% with chickens, and even 60% with banana trees – not to mention, of course, the rest of our kindred in the animal kingdom as well as all the other life species.

The evolutionary transformation of mankind has been quite spectacular and extremely rapid on the cosmic scale. The American social anthropologist, Lewis Henry Morgan (1818-1881) indicates in his magnum opus “Ancient Society” (1877) that while we are unable to determine the exact timeline of our ethnic evolution, it could have taken about 60,000 years for us to emerge from our original state of savagery to a primitive state of barbarism and another 35,000 years to progress to a more advanced state of barbarism before attaining an initial degree of civilization about 5,000 years later.

Our mating habits during this initial period of civilization were probably not very different from what they had been prior to civilization. Dominant males in many animal species treat their females and offspring as property and behavioral patterns of large portions of human society were not much more evolved if at all. It was not until the late 19th century and the early 20th century that democratic countries phased out their so-called covert marriage laws or the equivalent so that wives and their children were no longer considered as chattel (property) and were granted the legal statute of persons with attendant rights.

In underdeveloped countries, women remain submitted to the authority of men, passing from father to husband and, ultimately, to son. Whereas in developed countries, the two World Wars were catalysts for women's emancipation (somebody had to do the job while the men were at war). But even that has not prevented gender discrimination to continue to be endemic worldwide. Full emancipation only concerns a privileged minority of women. The majority live in underdeveloped countries and, apart from a few notable exceptions, they largely remain subjugated.

In addition, women have always been and, to a large extent, still are the victims of male violence. Beating wives and children has long been tolerated by society.

It has been suggested that the characteristic of male aggressiveness, observed in all mammals (including mankind), reptiles, birds and other vertebrates, may be due to the testosterone hormone present in far greater quantities in the males of each species than in the females, though no conclusive evidence has been forthcoming, so far, in this regard.

Judging from the results of various studies that have been carried out on the causes of family violence it seems that the predominately male aggressors are not a homogenous group. They are diverse and varied. What they obviously do have in common is that they knowingly and willingly commit their ignoble, bestial acts that are constantly repeated over long periods often lasting several years and are therefore entirely responsible for them.

Domestic violence is a common feature of all countries and all cultures, even the most advanced. Thousands of women die each year, around the world, as a result of blows received from their husbands or domestic partners in an atmosphere of general indifference. In 1999, the United Nations declared 25 November as the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women in an effort to provoke public awareness of the problem.

The love cog has an uphill battle pushing the wheel of life on to the next cog to keep it turning. True love is a very scarce commodity in a commodity-scarce market. The declaration of the 39th president of the United States, Jimmy Carter, following the death of his 96-year-old wife when he, himself, was 99 years old, came as a breath of fresh air :

« Rosalynn was my equal partner in everything I ever accomplished, She gave me wise guidance and encouragement when I needed it. As long as Rosalynn was in the world, I always knew somebody loved and supported me ».

Nothing about romance, passion, emotion, adoration, affection, or religion, in that eulogy – just the ultimate expression of the essence of love.

Rosalynn and Jimmy Carter were married for 77 years. They were the longest-married presidential couple since George Washington was unanimously elected first president of the USA in 1789.

It is amazing that there is so much confusion and ignorance of such a natural instinct as love. The term has been used and abused to the point where successive generations have little or no idea of its true signification.

To throw some light on the subject, neuroscientists decided to research the brain functions that cause people to fall in love. Scientific research was carried out on a small rodent known as the prairie vole, found in grasslands in the central United States and Canada. The prairie vole was chosen for the clinical experiments because, like us humans, it is a mammal and also mates for life.

After several decades of research, the final results seemed to indicate that a molecule called oxytocin was the hormone responsible for forming social bonds in prairie voles, humans, and various other species. However, more recent research, the results of which were published in the American neuroscience journal, “Neuron” in 2023 found that prairie voles without oxytocin receptors also form pair bonds. So, we are back to square one on that score.

Well before science decided to undertake research on the brain functions that cause people to fall in love, a long list of philosophers and religious leaders have expounded their theories on the subject.

Plato and Aristotle considered there were many different types of love: erotic love, friendly love, familial love, universal love, long-lasting love and self-love. As for Socrates, Plato cites in extenso in his “Symposium” the long dialogue Socrates is reported to have had with the prophetess, Diotima, in which she declares that “love is of immortality”. She explains :

« For love, Socrates, is not, as you imagine, the love of the beautiful only.” “What then?” “The love of generation and of birth in beauty.” “Yes,” I said. “Yes, indeed,” she replied. “But why of generation?” “Because to the mortal creature, generation is a sort of eternity and immortality,” she replied: “and if, as has been already admitted, love is of the everlasting possession of the good, all men will necessarily desire immortality together with good: Wherefore love is of immortality.” »

Love is of immortality because “generation is a sort of eternity”. That rings as an echo of the rationale exposed here that morality, altruism, and love are cogs that keep the wheel of life turning.

Christianity teaches that love is an attribute of God. Whereas in Islam there are four types of love: love between a man and a woman, love among the members of society, love of the Prophet Muhammad, and love of Almighty Allah. “Love God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your might”, “love the stranger”, and “love your neighbor as yourself” are the edicts of Judaism.

In Hinduism love is devotional, or for a divine purpose. In Buddhism it is universal, for enlightenment, and for all humankind. Confucianism teaches that love is in actions and duty of a person as a part of his society. A core concept is “ren” which means benevolent love or compassion The focus is on duty, action, and attitude in a relationship rather than love itself.

No matter how it is conceptualized, people continue to fall in love and life goes on despite all the wars and destruction it has engendered. Life has accomplished its colonization of Earth but, in doing so, it has also generated a process of self-extinction that seems irreversible.

If life is to survive, it must find a new haven somewhere in this vast and constantly expanding universe in the not-too-distant future – on the cosmic scale, of course.

Rodney Crisp is an Australian author and freethinker who lives and writes in Paris near Montmartre, the favorite haunt of the 19th-century impressionist painters, between the modest lodgings in which Suzanne Valadon gave birth to her son, Maurice Utrillo, and the elegant bourgeois apartment of Paul Cézanne.