The Four Loves

Lewis asks whether it is appropriate to say that we “love” something such as a strawberry, given the context in which he views love. He begins his investigation with a discussion of pleasure, of which he says there are two sorts. First, there are pleasures that depend on anticipation and desire, and second, there are pleasures that are pleasures in their own right. For the first, he uses the example of a drink of water. Drinking water is pleasant when one is thirsty but is not a pleasure that anyone aspires to otherwise. For the second type of pleasure, he uses the example of a sudden, pleasant smell. It is not planned for or anticipated but is a pleasure in its own right when it occurs. Lewis separates these two classes into “Need-pleasures” and “Pleasures of Appreciation” (11).

He insists that “[t]he human mind is generally far more eager to praise and dispraise than to describe and define” (12). The characteristics of the two types of pleasure are important in that they will foreshadow the characteristics of what Lewis will be calling the four loves.

A Need-pleasure can cease to be a pleasure as soon as it is satisfied.