What is friendship and how does Aristotle distinguish among them.

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Friendship and Aristotle

Out of the ten books of Nicomachean Ethics , only books eight and nine are on the subject of friendship . In natural human nature , people do not want to be lonely . They have an urge to socialize and affiliate , as mankind is a social and political animal . In Nicomachean Ethics Aristotle examines happiness , which he defines as the good towards which every human action is directed . Friendship brings people the most happiness as people need love to survive

. According to Aristotle , an important ingredient of happiness is friendship . Without doubt , any individual will feel lonely without friends . In fact , human beings and even other creatures have a natural urge to affiliate . Many animal species affiliate , collecting in groups , flocks , or schools to migrate or search for food . Living creatures depend on one another for survival whether it be physical needs or emotional needs . Without emotional support , no matter how much money or success a person gains , he /she will not be happy

Each individual needs to have family and /or friends to share some of his /her wealth and success with . For instance , if a student gets an "A on a test , but cannot show it to the busy parents , the student will feel unhappy . This is due to the fact that people have a need to show off their achievements that they have worked very hard for , to the people that they care about . Therefore , without friends whatever success or material goods gained will lose their meaning "For without friends no one would choose to live , though he had all other goods (Nicomachean Ethics-Book VIII . For Aristotle , ethics is "the art of living well One can only live well by having friends , since friendship provides the ideal conditions for the pursuit of success in life . For example friends can provide motivation , encouragement , good suggestions and recommendations , and possibly even financial support . Most often people seek the company of their friends for a sense of security when they are anxious or frightened "And in poverty and in other misfortunes men think friends are the only refuge (Nicomachean Ethics-Book VIII

This shows that friends can make people happy by providing help and security . One can only live well if one is happy . Aristotle once stated that , for living is the soul 's function and to live well is to be happy . Since friends make people happy , human friendship is necessary for people to live well . Self-love is not as bad as people believe it to be . In fact , having love for oneself does not necessarily mean that one is a selfish person . A person must love him /herself first before he /she can love another person . For the most part , Aristotle sees friendship as in some way equivalent to self-love , or friendship with oneself . On the other hand , it can be argued that another person is needed in addition to an individual in to have a friendship . In any...