Macy Salzberger

This paper presents an account of alienated love, love where we are substantively alienated or estranged from the beloved because our attitudinal practices keep the beloved at a distance. Our attitudinal practices thereby foreclose opportunities for intimacy and mutual understanding between the lover and the beloved. Although alienated love can leave us without much of what makes love valuable, this paper argues that alienated love can also meaningfully inform our identities, connect us to the world, and connect us to hard-to-find communities. The value of alienated love gives us defeasible reasons to maintain, if not pursue, relationships characterized by alienated love.