Abstract

Spiritual needs, particularly the experience of love, play an important role in human self-reflection and moral development. Despite its centrality, the philosophical exploration of love and its relation to selfhood remains relatively underexplored, especially in contemporary Chinese scholarship. This paper examines the nature of “good love” as articulated by Dr. Chen Guo in her seminal work Good Love, highlighting her perspective on how love contributes to self-realization and spiritual development. Drawing on philosophical hermeneutics and the ethics of selfhood, the study interprets Chen Guo’s ideas within the broader discourse of human moral and spiritual cultivation. Using textual and conceptual analysis, the study closely examines Good Love to identify its key arguments, philosophical foundations, and ethical implications. The study finds that Chen Guo positions “good love” as a relational and self-reflective practice that nurtures individual selfhood while simultaneously promoting societal moral progress. By providing a systematic analysis of her perspective, the paper aims to contribute to the philosophical discourse on love, bridging individual ethical cultivation and social spiritual development, and offers a valuable framework for understanding contemporary interpretations of selfhood and relational ethics in modern China.