This book is a philosophical study of love between equals, intended for the general reader. The Introduction explains the importance of analytic philosophy. Subsequent chapters deal with (1) love as desire or need, (2) love as intrinsic friendship, (3) the politics of love, (4) altruism and paranoia, (5) justice and communication, (6) sex, and (7) the value in loving an equal, together with some remarks on the human condition in general and the importance of reason in dealing with it. A brief list of further reading is appended.

In his preface Mr Wilson writes 'I feel that a great many adults would do better to spend less time in simply accepting the concepts of others uncritically, and more time in learning how to analyse concepts in general'. Mr Wilson starts by describing the techniques of conceptual analysis. He then gives examples of them in action by composing answers to specific questions and by criticism of quoted passages of argument. Chapter 3 sums up the importance of this kind of mental activity. Chapter 4 presents selections for the reader to analyse, followed by questions of university...

Nobody thinks love unimportant, but we are not as clear as we should be about what love involves, and about what it is to learn to love. This book is primarily concerned with personal love between the sexes (or between members of the same sex). It is a mixture of analytic philosophy and depth-psychology, but free from jargon and technicality. Its main aim is to help us to understand the nature and value of love, and to grasp the difficulties we have to face when engaging with it.