Honors College Art & Science of Emotions Fall 2017 (1:20 p.m.) Love Journal | Page 18

most personal and meaningful songs Swift has created.
“The Best Day” is an example of philia in the sense that it deals with family love. It is not a romantic relationship like eros . It is
an example of the love between a parent and child which is a mutual beneficial relationship, or at least it is intended to be. Aristotle describes
this type of friendship or love as, “doing kindness; doing them unasked; and not proclaiming the fact that they are done.” (Moseley 3) This
captures the essence of the love between a parent and a child; you do things to show them that you love them and that you will protect them.
I do not agree with Aristotle in the fact that he says the virtuous man deserve to be loved more. (Moseley 3) Being a great person makes
you more capable of being loved, but I do not think this has anything to do with the love between a parent and child. However, I believe it is
also like agape because agape love because, “ Agape refers to the paternal love of God for man and man for God.” (Moseley 4) I believe that
this relationship is the type of relationship between a parent and child. Essentially you love them because they are your parents and they
love you for being their child, but we build a deeper connection over time creating philia . However, it is possible that agape and philia never
occur in a parent-child relationship.
This relationship stems from attachment. Attachment is caused from the result of the hormone oxytocin. Oxytocin is released dur-
ing events that bring us closer to other humans; it is a bonding hormone. It is supposed to be released during child birth and breast feeding
(also during sex but that does not pertain to this type of relationship). (Mu 5) However, just because these things are supposed to cause
attachment it doesn’t always mean they will. A parent may not properly secrete oxytocin and therefore never feel attached to their child
causing them to emotionally neglect the child. Additionally, it is possible that it is a trickle-down effect in which people never learn philia and
therefore don’t know how to show love to their child. There is also the possibility that these people want nothing to do with being parents.
This idea will be touched on later. For now, we will focus on the attachment and bond that has formed between Swift and her mother and the
positivity of it that we see through the song “The Best Day.”
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