how can there be a “law of love” to begin with—can you actually command someone to love another? The problem, of course, is not so much with James as with us. At least in modern Western societies, we tend to think of ourselves as isolated individuals who are most fully ourselves when left alone, not entangled with others or bound by the demands of culture or tradition. Love is an emotion that we individually feel and that we then act on. If we carry these (often unexamined) assumptions, then “law”