Friendship

Friendship

Assignment

The whole study of the chapters provides great depiction of friendship under the words of Aristotle. He conceives friendship as the most significant and best virtue of a person. Aristotle discusses the broader range of developments in which he found very much interested in. The philosopher is inclined in categorizing the distinguished kinds of friendship that offers the main theme of the book VIII and IX. The chapter shows the close association between friendship and virtuous activity. Aristotle is justifying the notion of happiness as virtuous activity by reflecting how relationships are satisfying a virtuous person.

His classification starts with the assumptions that there might be three key reasons that why a person may like someone. It is possible that one may like someone as he can be good, or because he is helpful, or his nature is pleasant towards other. Moreover, there are three grounds of friendship, which depends over the binding qualities of friends with each other. It has been observed, when two people recognize that another person is good nature, they will spend time with each other and make them engaged in different activities, which ultimately turn in friendship. If people are equally virtuous towards each other, their friendship will be perfect. Nevertheless, there is an extent space in the moral development, such as between husband and wife, parents and child. It is possible that their association can be grounded over the good character of another person, which would be precisely imperfect due to their inequality.

Aristotle focuses on the imperfect friendships; however, it is not the uneven associations that based on perfect character. Instead of, these are the relationship that seized together due to the regard of each other sources of benefits or pleasures. It has been observed throughout the study that when Aristotle calls these associations as “imperfect”, it means he is depending on the broader assumptions of the relationship satisfaction. According to him, these kinds of friendships are faulty by nature and cannot deserve the title of friendship. He never suggested that uneven relations are based over the common recognition of perfect character, which is defective in similar ways. Instead, Aristotle says that uneven relationships are imperfect by character. He meant that people known as friends, when they happily meet with each other and share different activities, and if these factors are not included it means they are not even in their moral development.

In the ...