Values Friendship
Friendship
(10/6/2023, 9:41:22 AM)
- The importance of friendship
- three kinds
- Expression in virtue, or through virtue
- The best kind of friendship is for the sake of the other
- two good people are defined by their concern for one another
- Therefore the best kind of government is for the sake of the other
“After what we have said, a discussion of friendship would naturally follow, since it is a virtue or implies virtue, and is besides most necessary with a view to living.” (Aristotle, 1999, p. 127) (pdf)
“For without friends no one would choose to live, though he had all other goods; even rich men and those in possession of office and of dominating power are thought to need friends most of all; for what is the use of such prosperity without the opportunity of beneficence, which is exercised chiefly and in its most laudable form towards friends?” (Aristotle, 1999, p. 127) (pdf)
“The kinds of friendship may perhaps be cleared up if we first come to know the object of love. For not everything seems to be loved but only the lovable, and this is good, pleasant, or useful; but it would seem to be that by which some good or pleasure is produced that is useful, so that it is the good and the useful that are lovable as ends.” (Aristotle, 1999, p. 128) (pdf)
“Do men love, then, the good, or what is good for them?” (Aristotle, 1999, p. 128) (pdf)
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“but to a friend we say we ought to wish what is good for his sake.” (Aristotle, 1999, p. 128) (pdf)
But not general goodwill, but the goodwill for a specific other
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“But to those who thus wish good we ascribe only goodwill, if the wish is not reciprocated; goodwill when it is reciprocal being friendship.” (Aristotle, 1999, p. 128) (pdf)
“To be friends, then, the must be mutually recognized as bearing goodwill and wishing well to each other for one of the aforesaid reasons.” (Aristotle, 1999, p. 129) (pdf)
“There are therefore three kinds of friendship, equal in number to the things that are lovable; for with respect to each there is a mutual and recognized love, and those who love each other wish well to each other in that respect in which they love one another.” (Aristotle, 1999, p. 129) (pdf)
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“for it is thus that they attain the purpose of their friendship. Perfect friendship is the friendship of men who are good, and alike in virtue; for these wish well alike to each other qua good, and they are good themselves.” (Aristotle, 1999, p. 130) (pdf)
“So too they are pleasant; for the good are pleasant both without qualification and to each other, since to each his own activities and others like them are pleasurable, and the actions of the good are the same or like” (Aristotle, 1999, p. 130) (pdf)
???
“As in regard to the virtues some men are called good in respect of a state of character, others in respect of an activity, so too in the case of friendship; for those who live together delight in each other and confer benefits on each other, but those who are asleep or locally separated are not performing” (Aristotle, 1999, p. 132) (pdf)
???
“Each party, then, neither gets the same from the other, nor ought to seek it; but when children render to parents what they ought to render to those who brought them into the world, and parents render what they should to their children, the friendship of such persons will be abiding and excellent.” (Aristotle, 1999, p. 135) (pdf)
- Friendship and justice are the same
“Friendship and justice seem, as we have said at the outset of our discussion, to be concerned with the same objects and exhibited between the same persons.” (Aristotle, 1999, p. 137) (pdf)
- therefore friendship is the glue that holds communities together
???
“All the communities, then, seem to be parts of the political community; and the particular kinds friendship will correspond to the particular kinds of community.” (Aristotle, 1999, p. 138) (pdf)
- The question that arises then, is which political organization best motivates friendship?
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“There are three kinds of constitution, and an equal number of deviationforms—perversions, as it were, of them. The constitutions are monarchy, aristocracy, and thirdly that which is based on a property qualification, which it seems appropriate to call timocratic, though most people are wont to call it polity.” (Aristotle, 1999, p. 138) (pdf)
???
“Democracy is the least bad of the deviations; for in its case the form of constitution is but a slight deviation.” (Aristotle, 1999, p. 139) (pdf)
- comparison between governments and types of friendships
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“Each of the constitutions may be seen to involve friendship just in so far as it involves justice.” (Aristotle, 1999, p. 139) (pdf)
“for he is responsible for the existence of his children, which is thought the greatest good, and for their nurture and upbringing.” (Aristotle, 1999, p. 140) (pdf)
“The friendship of man and wife, again, is the same that is found in an aristocracy; for it is in accordance with virtue the better gets more of what is good, and each gets what befits him; and so, too, with the justice in these relations.” (Aristotle, 1999, p. 140) (pdf)
“Like this, too, is the friendship appropriate to timocratic government; for in such a constitution the ideal is for the citizens to be equal and fair; therefore rule is taken in turn, and on equal terms; and the friendship appropriate here will correspond.” (Aristotle, 1999, p. 140) (pdf)
“Therefore while in tyrannies friendship and justice hardly exist, in democracies they exist more fully; for where the citizens are equal they have much in common.” (Aristotle, 1999, p. 140) (pdf)
???
“The friendship of kinsmen itself, while it seems to be of many kinds, appears to depend in every case on parental friendship; for parents love their children as being a part of themselves, and children their parents as being something originating from them. Now (1) parents know their offspring better than there children know that they are their children, and (2) the originator feels his offspring to be his own more than the offspring do their begetter; for the product belongs to the producer (e.g., a tooth or hair or anything else to him whose it is), but the producer does not belong to the product, or belongs in a less degree. And (3) the length of time produces the same result; parents love their children as soon as these are born, but children love their parents only after time has elapsed and they have acquired understanding or the power of discrimination by the senses.” (Aristotle, 1999, p. 141) (pdf)
“Between other kinsmen friendly relations are found in due proportion. Between man and wife friendship seems to exist by nature; for man is naturally inclined to form couples—even more than to form cities, inasmuch as the household is earlier and more necessary than the city, and reproduction is more common to man with the animals” (Aristotle, 1999, p. 142) (pdf)
???
“so they help each other by throwing their peculiar gifts into the common stock.” (Aristotle, 1999, p. 142) (pdf)
Justice as the best kind of friendship
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“Now it seems that, as justice is of two kinds, one unwritten and the other legal, one kind of friendship of utility is moral and the other legal.” (Aristotle, 1999, p. 143) (pdf)
“It seems to be so in constitutional arrangements also; the man who contributes nothing good to the common stock is not honoured; for what belongs to the public is given to the man who benefits the public, and honour does belong to the public.” (Aristotle, 1999, p. 145) (pdf)