Log in

View Full Version : Love and Hate: The Same?


Spook
January 11th, 2013, 01:26 PM
So. As people, we associate the word "care" as tender, loving, or protection of someone/something. e.g. "She is very caring." We associate a similar feeling with love, in that a person cares about another person; or has strong feelings for them.

Now think about the word hate.

The first thing that probably came to your mind was anger, or a strong dislike of someone/something. In this sense, you care.

Truly, Love and Hate fall into the same category, even when we say they are complete opposites. When you love, you care about someone. When you hate, you care about someone. The difference is in the way you care, whether negative or positive. But if you hate someone(thing), you care about it. Otherwise, it wouldn't bother you.


Have you ever been in a relationship in which you and said person both had hate for each other? Your answer is most likely yes, because as people we hate (dislike) those who are not like we are. Technically somebody always dislikes another person in their lifetime.

In a circumstance when you hated a person, what would you do if they tried to insult you? Often when the word hate comes to mind, something like aggression boils up as well. You may have violent thoughts, or feel angered towards them. Enough chatter, I'll get to the point. What I have observed is that people often go looking for a battle. Talking to someone you "hate" gives you the opportunity to be right, to put yourself above them, to make them know you hate them. While we may not directly follow them looking to fight, we often indirectly become aggressive. There's something fun, something thrilling about the challenge; the fight.

It's like playing the crane arcade game. It could go two ways: Put your ten cents in and you could get the prize, and walk away with a stuffed animal. Or, the crane could snap it's jaws and you leave with less than you had before. When you're working the crane, though; you may feel anticipation, adrenaline, excitement. Like I said before, the unknown is a site of both dislike and curiosity. So bring yourself back to the conversation with that person you hate. Do you feel that adrenaline? You say what you need to say and in the end you either win that prize; the confidence that you've won, or you leave with less than you had before.

Take this into thought: is that stuffed bear or that winning ego-booster really worth anything? The 50-cent bear cost less then the several dollars you put in to finally win it. Either way, you lose something. Is it really worth it? This same concept applies to hate. Hate is followed with a burst of emotion, adrenaline, fury perhaps. This height of emotion compels you sometimes to do things that you may regret later. Then when it's all over you realize that you could have used that dollar to buy a better teddy bear in the store. But when you're actually in the store, you don't want the bear. It's about getting what we can't have- what's behind the glass that we want? It's the completely irrational game of longing for what we can't have. So we do everything we can to get it. But that person on the side of the road we could easily start a fight with? Doesn't matter. We don't care. As for the person we claim we hate, we care. That hate is your sheild of glass. So what does all this have to do with love?

Two years later that old stuffed toy that you won that one time gets thrown away. It was worthless from the start. The next day you walk by a crane machine and see the little animals lined up, mockingly, inside of that glass square. Suddenly, though, you don't feel that need to hate that glass barrier. It's water to you. But who was the real enemy: the stuffed animal, your loss, or that cold glass? All of the sudden you become unsure of everything you thought was true and maybe you take the first step past hate. You still care, but you can't remember which you care about. So you forgive.

Love and Hate is caring, even when it doesn't make sense. We love people we shouldn't, we hate things that are beautiful. We loathe what we can't have. We love what we can't have. But what we can have-- That's just a teddy bear sitting on a store's shelf. Easy to reach, easy to get; easy to love, easy to hate- but nobody cares.

Lost in the Echo
January 11th, 2013, 01:49 PM
No, I wouldn't say they're the same thing. Love is a positive emotion, and hate is a negative emotion. Hate is not a form of caring. When someone cares, it's always positive, not negative. Here is a link that proves my point, as it defines the word "caring". : http://www.audioenglish.net/dictionary/caring.htm

huginnmuninn
January 11th, 2013, 02:06 PM
I suppose that Hate can stem from Love like if someone destroyed something you loved or someone you loved hurt you badly but i wouldn't say that they are the same.

MisterSix
January 11th, 2013, 02:51 PM
That's like calling left and right the same. Yes, they may have a few things in common. You could wright a long philosophical essay and I'm sure it could be quite convincing, but there's no getting around the fact, they are still complete opposites

Human
January 11th, 2013, 03:17 PM
No, I wouldn't say they're the same thing. Love is a positive emotion, and hate is a negative emotion. Hate is not a form of caring. When someone cares, it's always positive, not negative. Here is a link that proves my point, as it defines the word "caring". : http://www.audioenglish.net/dictionary/caring.htm

i agree
i'm not so sure what OP is getting at though

TigerBoy
January 11th, 2013, 03:38 PM
You seem to be saying that Love and Hate equate to an emotional depth that requires that you 'care', as in 'emotionally engage' with the object of that emotion.

In my view Love and Hate are not a special case: your definition applies to all emotions - if you don't 'care' you don't experience ANY emotion.

FreeFall
January 11th, 2013, 03:51 PM
In my opinion you've more describe why hate isn't the opposite of love, as some refuse to believe.

But they are not the same.
When you hate a person, you want to harm them or get away from them. When you love someone, you want to protect them and be around them. We want the one we love to stick around, we want the people we hate to get eaten by wild man-eating rabbits.
You're right in that they are both very strong emotions, but you can't call them the same.

Zenos
January 11th, 2013, 11:00 PM
No, I wouldn't say they're the same thing. Love is a positive emotion, and hate is a negative emotion. Hate is not a form of caring. When someone cares, it's always positive, not negative. Here is a link that proves my point, as it defines the word "caring". : http://www.audioenglish.net/dictionary/caring.htm



I think what the OP means is they fall into the same categorie i;e a strong emotion!

ImCoolBeans
January 12th, 2013, 12:42 AM
I believe that love and hate are the same emotion; but on opposite sides of the spectrum. Love is the most extreme positive emotion that anybody can feel, while hate is the strongest negative emotion that anybody can. They are often the same weight emotionally and can effect somebody equally as much as each other. They are not "the same" -- for obvious reasons -- In one scenario you are warm towards a person and in another you are cold towards him or her. On one side you desire somebody and on the other you loathe that person. But despite these differences I would say that they are equal on a scale of emotions.

Twilly F. Sniper
January 12th, 2013, 08:22 AM
Love is SIMILAR to hate, but opposites at the same time. Love, though, overpowers hate, as seen by teenage killers, especially ones who kill family. That's because the love for another person that isn't welcome is so strong that they kill their own family. Most of the time the family is right in the end and not the killer.
(Note: these killers are often female.)

Iris
January 13th, 2013, 11:27 PM
There are four major theories of emotion in psychology studies that discuss this concept. Some argue that we only identify emotion by environment and circumstance. For example our heart rate increases, our breathing gets shallow, we experience strong feelings but whether that's fear, sexual arousal, love, hate, depends on what's going on around us when the strong feelings occur. So according to that, love and hate are the same strong feelings that we identify in different ways. It explains why make-up sex is so great; because the excitement from the fight transfers into the passion of the sex.

Another theory argues that emotion is on a spectrum, and opposite emotions are linked. In that case, love and hate are the same as well, just on different sides of the emotional seesaw.

With those theories in mind, I think love and hate are inextricably linked. I don't think it's possible to hate someone as much as you hate someone you once deeply loved. Emotion is emotion; it's what we make of it that makes it what it is.

CharlieFinley
January 13th, 2013, 11:43 PM
Black and White: The Same?

Antisthenes
January 16th, 2013, 02:01 AM
Black and White: The Same?
Are you taking to likening the relationship between (love) and (hate) to be akin to that of (black) and (white)? If so, we should realize that this is begging the question. If not, then the purpose of this rhetorical jab has eluded me entirely.

CharlieHorse
January 16th, 2013, 02:22 AM
But love and hate aren't the same thing in the relative way we most commonly use them today.

Antisthenes
January 16th, 2013, 02:34 AM
But love and hate aren't the same thing in the relative way we most commonly use them today.

This, though, is precisely where the possible problem will sit.

The original poster was questioning exactly that point as to whether it's actually true or not. So, to simply respond to this argument about the statement being questionably true as though the statement isn't true is to beg the question and suppose that that original statement is one way or the other before presenting a case, which is poor form in argument.

It would be as if the following was done:

I say, "God: Exists or doesn't?"

and someone was to say to this, "Easter Bunny: Exists or doesn't?"

This is begging the question, because it supposes that God and the Easter Bunny have a similar relation in their case of existence. This is to suppose the conclusion to be one way or the other before actually addressing the question itself as to whether or not it is even true yet. Do you now see what I mean?

Similarly, consider:

"Free Will: Exists or doesn't?"

Response: "The Earth: Exists or doesn't?"

The rhetorical response supposes that the original question has an obvious answer already, which is nothing other than to beg the question.

CharlieHorse
January 16th, 2013, 02:48 AM
This, though, is precisely where the possible problem will sit.

The original poster was questioning exactly that point as to whether it's actually true or not. So, to simply respond to this argument about the statement being questionably true as though the statement is true is to beg the question and suppose that that original statement is true, which is poor form in argument.

It would be as if the following was done:

I say, "God: Exists or doesn't?"

and someone was to say to this, "Easter Bunny: Exists or doesn't?"

This is begging the question, because it supposes that God and the Easter Bunny have a similar relation in their case of existence. This is to suppose the conclusion to be one way or the other before actually addressing the question itself as to whether or not it is even true yet. Do you now see what I mean?

Similarly, consider:

"Free Will: Exists or doesn't?"

Response: "The Earth: Exists or doesn't?"

The rhetorical response supposes that the original question has an obvious answer already, which is nothing other than to beg the question.

Dude, your logic gives me braingasms :D

If they were the same, then they'd have the same spelling... :o jk I'm just being weird...
..
.
Consider: If you tell your girlfriend that you love her, I'm pretty sure she'll act differently than if you say you hate her.

Antisthenes
January 16th, 2013, 02:52 AM
Dude, your logic gives me braingasms :D

If they were the same, then they'd have the same spelling... :o jk I'm just being weird...

I realize you're being silly here, but we should make sure to note that the names being dissimilar does not lead us to the items that the names are representing being dissimilar. What follows in the names does not necessarily follow also in what the names represent.

Consider: If you tell your girlfriend that you love her, I'm pretty sure she'll act differently than if you say you hate her.

In this case is a similar issue. People reacting differently to different names does not lead to the items the names represent being different.

Let me know if you agree/disagree with what I said above. If disagree, I'll explain in more detail the difference between names and the items the names represent.

CharlieHorse
January 16th, 2013, 03:01 AM
I realize you're being silly here, but we should make sure to note that the names being dissimilar does not lead us to the items that the names are representing being dissimilar. What follows in the names does not necessarily follow also in what the names represent.



In this case is a similar issue. People reacting differently to different names does not lead to the items the names represent being different.

Let me know if you agree/disagree with what I said above. If disagree, I'll explain in more detail the difference between names and the items the names represent.

-yeah I know, I'm just being a stub.
Nvm my iduocity
-but isn't language made by people themselves, and each word meant to mean a different thing?
-yeah I know, I was just trying to be conspirator.

Antisthenes
January 16th, 2013, 03:05 AM
-yeah I know, I'm just being a stub.
Nvm my iduocity
-but isn't language made by people themselves, and each word meant to mean a different thing?
-yeah I know, I was just trying to be conspirator.

Language is made by people. However, each word is not necessarily meant to mean a different thing. Consider synonyms for example; words that mean the same thing but are not the same word.

An example:

The word, "big" and the word, "large".

Different words, but this does not mean that what they represent is also different.

CharlieHorse
January 16th, 2013, 03:15 AM
I think it's still possible to find that synonyms differ from eachother in meaning. There might not be words to describe this difference, but it is like a subconscious recognition that is ever so slight that we consider them the same for simplicity.

Antisthenes
January 16th, 2013, 03:24 AM
I think it's still possible to find that synonyms differ from eachother in meaning. There might not be words to describe this difference, but it is like a subconscious recognition that is ever so slight that we consider them the same for simplicity.

Not all synonyms differ, but some differ in some respects as to their meaning.

For an example of those that do not differ in meaning in some respect:

The words, "stop" and "halt".

Words that do differ in meaning in some respect:

The words, "happy" and "content".

Some synonyms do mean the same, some do not. This is why it is invalid to conclude that the meaning of the words is different because of a different word.

CharlieFinley
January 16th, 2013, 01:59 PM
I would tell this man he is correct, but he's banned, so I don't see the point.