Open Love, Religion, and Human Rights

ABSTRACT:This essay explores Henri Bergson’s idea of “open love” (a love that cares for all without preference, exclusion, or attachment), its relationship to religion, and its relevance for human rights. Open love is Bergson’s solution to the problem of “closed morality” (our tendency to care for our own kind over others). Reading Dave Eggers’ novel, What Is the What, alongside Bergson’s work reveals that religion (Catholicism and human rights) is indispensable to the “open morality” demanded by human rights. Although religion and love are not often part of human rights discourse, both are fundamental for human rights to work.