Love and Personal Style

Abstract

To love someone is partly to have a positive valuation of her. According to what I call the Vellemanian View, in loving valuation the lover (1) values the beloved for her character and (2) values her features of embodiment merely as expressions of her character. I challenge this view by arguing that in loving valuation the lover regards the beloved’s character and embodiment as much more intimately connected. I then develop the Stylistic View, which holds that in loving valuation the lover values the beloved for her personal style, understood as her unified way of finding herself in the world. I argue that in such valuation the lover doesn’t differentiate between the beloved’s character traits and features of embodiment, and that the character/embodiment distinction only becomes salient to the lover when she takes a reflective attitude towards her loving valuation.