Aristotle_Friendship

Aristotle Friendship Aristotle and Friends We are all social creatures whom by our nature surround ourselves with other human beings who we call our friends. We are constantly trying to broaden our own circle of friends. Aristotle understood the importance of friendship, books VIII and IX of the Nicomachean Ethics deal solely with friendship. A modern day definition of a friend can be defined as “one joined to another in intimacy and mutual benevolence independently of sexual or family love”. (Oxford English Dictionary). Aristotle’s view on friendship is much broader than this. His arguments are certainly not flawless. In this essay I will outline what Aristotle said about friendship in the Nichomachaen Ethics and highlight possible flaws in his arguments. Friendship for Aristotle (and Greeks in general), as mentioned earlier, is much broader than the definition given in the O.E.D. Aristotle regards less intimate bonds as friendships as well as the intimate relationship in the modern definition. Relationships between husband and wife, father and son, neighbors, business partners, team members, members of a political party, teacher and student, would all be viewed as friendships in Aristotle’s eyes (Russell McNeil). However, he does distinguish between different types of friendship. Friendships for Aristotle can friendship, friendships, aristotle, friends, people, because, aristotle’s, virtue, mr, utility, pleasure, needs, kant, relationship, friend, virtuous, smith, definition, arguments, true, everyone, each, say, one, jones, ethics, between, virtues, useful, therefore, take, salesman, sake, moral, john