Aristotle on Self-Knowledge and Friendship
Philosophers' Imprint 11 (12):1-28 (2011)
| Abstract | In Nicomachean Ethics 10.7, Aristotle says that the contemplative wise person living the happiest and most self-sufficient life will need other people less than a person living a life of practical virtue. This seems to be in tension with Aristotle's emphasis elsewhere on the political nature of human beings. I analyze in detail Aristotle's most elaborate defense of the need for friends in the happy life in Nicomachean Ethics 9.9 to see whether and how he resolves the need for friends with the self-sufficiency of the happy life. The virtue-friendship described in the chapter does turn out to be more compatible with the self-contained unity of a happy life than other sorts of friendship, because collaboration in virtuous activities integrates the friend into one's activities. This is true even for contemplative friendship, where, as Aristotle suggests in the ornate final argument of 9.9, the friends collaboratively contemplate human nature and take pleasure in the goodness of human life. The unity achieved in this kind of friendship is an imitation of God's self-contemplative and self-contained unity. Nonetheless, I conclude, there is no evidence that Aristotle did not think that friendship was conditioned on human failings and so that friends would be less necessary for those leading the most excellent contemplative lives. | |||||||||
| Keywords | Aristotle Friendship Self-Knowledge | |||||||||
| Categories | ||||||||||
| Options |
|
|||||||||
Download options| PhilPapers Archive |
Upload a copy of this paper Check publisher's policy on self-archival Papers currently archived: 5,653 |
| External links |
  Try with proxy. Try with proxy. |
| Through your library | Configure |
Similar books and articlesWalter A. Brogan (2002). Gadamer's Praise of Theory: Aristotle's Friend and the Reciprocity Between Theory and Practice. Research in Phenomenology 32 (1):141-155.
Joyce L. Jenkins (1999). The Advantages of Civic Friendship. Journal of Philosophical Research 24:459-471.
R. K. Bentley (2013). Civic Friendship and Thin Citizenship. Res Publica 19 (1):5-19.
Yuanguo He (2007). Confucius and Aristotle on Friendship: A Comparative Study. Frontiers of Philosophy in China 2 (2):291-307.
Aristotle (1999). Aristotle: Nicomachean Ethics, Books VIII and IX. Clarendon Press.
Barbro Fröding & Martin Peterson (2012). Why Virtual Friendship is No Genuine Friendship. Ethics and Information Technology 14 (3):201-207.
Wanda Cizewski (1992). Friendship With God? Philosophy and Theology 6 (4):369-381.
Eric Mullis (2010). Confucius and Aristotle on the Goods of Friendship. Dao: A Journal of Comparative Philosophy 9 (4):391-405.
Dirk Baltzly & Nick Eliopoulos (2009). The Classical Ideals of Friendship. In Barabara Caine (ed.), Friendship: a history,. Equinox.
Mavis Biss (2011). Aristotle on Friendship and Self-Knowledge: The Friend Beyond the Mirror. History of Philosophy Quarterly 28 (2).
Stephen A. Calogero (1998). The Self in Aristotle's Ethics. Philosophy in the Contemporary World 5 (2/3):85-95.
A. W. Price (1989). Love and Friendship in Plato and Aristotle. Oxford University Press.
Analytics
Monthly downloads |
Added to index2011-10-01Total downloads83 ( #9,026 of 548,984 )Recent downloads (6 months)11 ( #5,982 of 548,984 )How can I increase my downloads? |
My notes
Discussion
