Q39 ~ Discuss Aristotle’s treatment of friendship in NE 8 and 9. Be sure to discuss the (quasi-necessary) conditions for friendship, the types of friendship, and the role friendship plays in the attainment of the Good.

39.  Discuss Aristotle’s treatment of friendship in NE 8 and 9. Be sure to discuss the (quasi-necessary) conditions for friendship, the types of friendship, and the role friendship plays in the attainment of the Good.

RW: Karl’s outline was very strong on this question.  I didn’t really change anything, but, as has been my practice, added an intro.

I)     Intro

A)   Set-up

1)    The context in NE

B)    Map

1)    The importance of friendship

2)    The character of friendship

3)    The types of friendship

4)    The limitations of friendship

5)    The eudaimonic contributions of friendship

II)   The Importance of Friendship: Aristotle treats friendship as a matter of great importance: it is a necessary part of the good life, something without which no one would choose to live

A)   It is essential to the exercise of some virtues, eg. beneficence

B)    Friendship is useful for the sharing of goods and for aid in hardship

C)    Friendly feeling is essential in binding together a polis

D)   Everyone needs friends:

1)    They form the young and keep them from making mistakes

2)    They aid the old in finishing projects for which they have not the strength

3)    They help those in their prime with noble actions

III) The Character of Friendship

A)   Aristotle says that friendship is distinguished from other relationships by, at core, the following features

1)    The involved parties have mutual love (or well-wishing)

2)    The parties wish good on the other for the other’s sake. (Though, as discussed later, it seems that this may be an ideal rather than a strictly necessary condition)

3)    Both parties must be aware of the good will of the other; it would be absurd for men to be counted as friends who think themselves enemies

B)    Aristotle describes friendship, at least at its best (in virtue friendship), as a sort of extension of one’s identity to another person. As such he says that friendship is characterized by dispositions good men have towards themselves (found in IX.4)

1)    One wishes and does what is good for the sake of one’s friend

2)    One wishes one’s friend to exist and live

3)    One desires to live with one’s friend

4)    One shares the same tastes and preferences as one’s friend

5)    One grieves and rejoices with one’s friend

C)    The vicious do not have this relationship even with themselves, for they often desire what they know to be bad for themselves, are internally disunited, and sometimes seek to escape their own company (through distraction) or end their own lives.

IV) The Types of Friendship: There are three types of friendships, differing according to what the friends value in one another.

A)   Utility Friendship – in which a person is valued for the useful services they can provide. This type is easily dissolved, as one’s usefulness shifts easily with circumstances. This type of friendship is common among older people seeking practical advantage.

B)    Pleasure Friendship – in which a person is valued because their company is pleasant. This type is also short lived, and is more common among the young, especially as Aristotle thinks many erotic relationships fall into this category (even if they last for only a day!).

C)    Virtue Friendship – in which a person is valued for their goodness and character. This type is the most enduring, since character is enduring and changes only gradually if at all. Such friendships are rare, for good people are few, and while men of poor character may form friendships of the other two types, they can’t have friendships of this type.

D)   Of these types, Aristotle thinks that virtue friendship is far and away the best. It is true friendship, and contains the goods of the other two–pleasure and utility–as well as the goods of shared good character. The other two sorts of friendship, he says, are considered friendship because of their partial resemblance to virtue friendship. Also, in each something good is valued, but in virtue friendship goodness itself is.

E)    Of the two types which are considered friendship “by analogy”, pleasure friendship is more truly friendship for the friends are closer to wishing good for the friend’s own sake. In utility friendship they seem to wish the other’s wellbeing primarily for their own sake. But neither of these types quite comes up to the “for their own sake” criterion.

F)    Also, though he does not list it as one of the primary types, Aristotle suggests a form of Political friendship which seems different from the other types.

1)    Aristotle writes that there is a kind of friendship characteristic of every community (including bands of soldiers and sailors, etc.)

2)    This sort of good will, he thinks, is shared by every member of a polis for every other, and helps bind it together. (The extent of the participants in a political friendship is much wider than how we typically use the word, as well as being broader than what Aristotle allows to the other three types)

3)    Aristotle thinks that love is the activity that causes the formation of a community  (This seems to be akin to a sort of diffuse utility friendship; one values one’s fellow citizens as vital to one’s own wellbeing.)

V)   The Limitations of Friendship

A)   Friendships will not be possible between people who come to differ too much in terms of intrinsic or extrinsic goods (wealth and power in the latter category, virtue in the former)

B)    A man can only have (and only needs) so many friends.  Friends of utility become burdensome in great number because their utility must be reciprocated. One only needs a few friends of pleasure, like seasoning on food. Friends of goodness are limited by practical constraints:

1)    They must be each other’s friends as well to spend time together

2)    Virtue friendships demand significant time

VI) The Eudaimonic Contributions of Friendship

A)   Friends aid happiness practically.  (Perhaps this is the least important, as the man living a good life will need no friends of utility and few friends of pleasure)

1)    Good in times of misfortune (IX.13). Friends know how to comfort one another best. 

2)    Friends will often aid us in our good endeavors.

3)    Allows for the exercise of certain virtues.

B)    Friendship brings unique goods/good in itself:

1)    It allows one to observe and contemplate good actions in a way one cannot observe one’s own

2)    It allows for and spurs one to more constant good activity

3)    It allows for “a certain training in virtue”

4)    Most importantly, for good men life is good, as is awareness of their own life as good. This consciousness of good existence may be extended to others through friendship. Friends with whom one shares intellectual activity become a sort of extension of one’s own being. (This same thing applies to whatever a group views as making life valuable: hence men will seek to share each other’s gambling or drinking instead of their contemplation and virtue.)