Abstract
In this chapter, we contrast Aristotle’s three types of friendships with a contemporary understanding of friendship and with the extant social science of friendships. We argue that Aristotle’s view of friendship is superior in avoiding a simple unidimensional portrayal that is individualistic and limited to seeing relationships in solely means-ends terms. We propose an alternative understanding of friendships and their contributions to well-being in which friends pursue shared goals through inherently meaningful activity. We describe the nascent empirical literature on Aristotelian friendship, and discuss a rich set of social science methods that can compare the adequacy of the predominant model of friendship to one based on an Aristotelian perspective.
This chapter discusses the Aristotle's types of friendships with a contemporary understanding of friendship and with the extant social science of friendships. It also discusses that Aristotle's view of friendship is superior in avoiding a simple unidimensional portrayal that is individualistic and limited to seeing relationships in solely means-ends terms. The chapter proposes an alternative understanding of friendships and their contributions to well-being in which friends pursue shared goals through inherently meaningful activity. It describes the nascent empirical literature on Aristotelian friendship, and discusses a rich set of social science methods that can compare the adequacy of the predominant model of friendship to one based on an Aristotelian perspective. Given the well-known importance of close relationships to human flourishing and the increasing interest in virtues, it is surprising that Aristotle's theory of philia has not received more attention in philosophy or psychology. A small set of researchers have applied Aristotle's typology by assessing respondents' perceptions of a friend's characteristics.