Friendship- Nicomachean Ethics

• For Aristotle, friendship = sustained relationships

Three Categories

1. Utility

   • Most sustained interactions

   • Socrates said this was why we have community in the first place

2. Pleasure

3. Complete

   • says it’s not abt what you get out of the friendship

   • you want the best for your friend and they want the best for you but not at your own expense

   • it is easier to be complete friends with someone who is alike in virtue

   • says largest number you should have is the largest number of people you could live with intimately

• may be possible to move around these categories

• mostly about proximity

• says friendships based on utility and pleasure don’t last as long b/c circumstances change, you change

• Socrates and Plato interacted w/ a wide variety of ppl but Aristotle was more isolated than they were, interacted w/ a few ppl for a longer time

Happiness

• Play is important to recharge but not happiness because not virtuous

• thinks happiness should align with contemplation b/c that is Ari’s most important virtue

• involves ration, the only thing he considers to be human

• allows you to make sense of the world and how you feel

• friends help you contemplate

• better education→ better contemplation→ happiness

• first to suggest govt subsidized public education for most help to society