The nature of royal weddings as very public declarations of love can cause us to reflect on love and partnership – and on 29th April 2011 when Prince William and Kate Middleton tied the knot, the royal couple took a vow that declared a commitment to love and cherish ‘til death do us part’. But what is ‘love’? What is it that makes us fall in love with someone and can we put a meaning on it? We’ve all experienced love, whether it is a friend, partner, family member, or a pet – but these are all very different kinds of love. So how do we define love when it encompasses such a variety of emotions? Carolyn Price, senior lecturer in Philosophy, and Timothy Chappell, director of the Ethics Centre, at The Open University, discuss the nature of love, from love as a function, to ‘the Doppelganger problem’ – should we also love another person with the same traits and qualities as the person we already love? Finally, the notion of love as a duty within marriage is explored.

Decisions on prolonging life, or not, are never easy. Chris Belshaw explores some of the considerations.

Forum member Keving made a plea to live in the moment

From The Walking Dead to Call Of Duty WWII, zombies are everywhere. Join us on an exploration of the undead amongst us...

After Leonard Cohen's death, Richard Danson Brown explores the way the songwriter specialised in conveying difficulties in father-son relationships through his songs, including 'Hallelujah'.

Gill Stoker considers to what extent Shakespeare would be at home in our contemporary world.

This free course, David Hume, examines Hume's reasons for being complacent in the face of death, as these are laid out in his suppressed essay of 1755, 'Of the immortality of the soul'. More generally, it examines some of the shifts in attitude concerning death and religious belief that were taking place in Europe at the end of the eighteenth century, through examination of this and other short essays.