How did the great thinkers love? The stoics, patiently; the vitalists, enthusiastically; the nihilists, pesimistically. For a philosopher, love is as exciting and as painful as it is for the rest of us mortals. Plato's eroticism, Saint Augustine's lust, Spinoza's frustration, Abelard and Heloïse's passion and the strange relationship of Jean Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir have all contributed towards our concept of love.

'I love, therefore I am' examines how love was experienced by those who devoted themselves intensely to thinking about how to love and be loved. The philosopher Manuel Cruz investigates the life and works of some of the most important thinkers of Western culture.