RP2: Aristotle Treatise on Friendship

One of the first things that Aristotle talks about is the degrees or types of friendship.

He will then propose the question of wicked people being able to have true friendships. But

first, what is friendship for Aristotle? In Book IX, he presents five definitions of what it is to

be a friend to someone, such as he “who wishes and does what is good, or seems so, for the

sake of his friend,” or “has the same tastes as another.” (p. 20) Aristotle argues that there are

two types of friendship: incidental friendships, driven by pleasure or utility, and perfect

friendships. He says that perfect friendships are “of men who are good, and alike in virtue;

for these wish well alike to each other qua good, and they are good themselves.” (p. 3)

Perfect friendships are driven by virtue and delight in the existence of the other person.

Therefore, he argues that friendship is of the good, as virtue and the existence of other people

are good in themselves, which means that wicked people cannot have a true, perfect

friendship.

Another thing he talks about is the friendship between two people whose intellect is of

different “age.” He maintains that, for instance, if one has a child’s intellect and the other has

a fully developed intellect, they cannot be friends, as they don’t delight in the same things.

I think that we as Catholics should guide ourselves and our view of friendships on

Aristotle’s ideas. However, we shouldn’t stop there. As Jesus said, we have to lay down our

lives for our friends; we have to love them to that extreme. Another thing is that we should

try to be friends with everyone, but we should only have a few true, perfect friendships, as

many “as are enough for the purpose of living together,” as Aristotle says. (p. 28)

Question: what are his thought regarding talking to one’s friends? What type of

conversations would/should friends have, and what kind of conversations should one avoid

when talking to other people who aren’t your friends?