Aristotle on Friendship in the City of Angels

34 juniors and seniors cocked their heads to the side like dogs for 1.5 hours yesterday afternoon in the City of Angels. Topic: Aristotle on true friendship. What are friends? Do you have any real ones? It was a healing experience yesterday afternoon in Business Ethics & Public Policy at California State University in the Valley -- a class with some rough patches in their behavior and decorum .

If you’d like to find out more about what Aristotle said about friendship, check out his Nicomachean Ethics, Book VIII.

[I’d suggest owning the book in a physical, book form].

He says there are three types of “friends.” I put the word in quote marks because, the first two types he describes are called “friends”, but are not really the fullest and best form of friendship. That may be another way of saying that they are friends so-called, and not true, real friends.

Real friendship is rare and takes a long time to develop.

The first two are friendship of utility and friendship of pleasure. These friendships form quickly, and are as quickly dissolved, as soon as the utility or pleasure goes away.

How is true friendship different, according to Aristotle ?

[Photo: the edition of Nicomachean Ethics (translated by Terrence Irwin) that I’ve used most often in teaching the material over 15 years. There are other translations that work well, too].

Copyright Lucas J. Mather, 2015, 2023
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First paragraph originally published to Facebook on Saturday 24 Oct 2015 at 9:32 am