Irreplaceability and Identity (Report‪)‬

There is a widely embraced and yet peculiar feature of our attachments to other persons that was highlighted by Robert Nozick. He writes: [L]ove is an interesting instance of [a] relationship that is historical, in that (like justice) it depends on what actually occurred. An adult may come to love another because of the other's characteristics; but it is the other person, and not the characteristics, that is loved. The love is not transferable to someone else with the same characteristics. And the love endures through changes of the characteristics that gave rise to it. One loves the particular person one actually encountered. Why love is historical, attaching to persons in this way and not to characteristics, is an interesting and puzzling question.