Abstract

The thesis of continuity between Romanticism and postmodern thought has become a commonplace. It is based on the fact that both have the common denominator of irrationalism, opposed to the rationality of the Enlightenment. The debate about postmodernity is, at the same time, a discussion about the essence of the Enlightenment. Considering, in this context, the philosophical question of love, and its relationship with the concept of person, can provide important data for this analysis. It is proposed in these lines that the eros-agape dialectic, present in different forms both in Enlightenment and in Romanticism, is also notable in postmodern thought. This dialectic would be a particular aspect of another, broader one, which would explain the continuity in the difference between the Enlightenment, Romanticism and postmodernity. On the other hand, it is argued that this view of postmodernity can provide a series of keys to interpret some current phenomena.