Aristotle’s View on Friendship and Happiness
Friendship is a bond that brings happiness. If it were not so, it would not exist. Friendship is two-way traffic while at times it is one-way traffic. It is not always possible to have friendship favor you. For example, parents have to love their children regardless of the children’s reactions (Natali, 2009). Friends play a vital part in a person’s life from supporting them through difficult and hard times and helping them achieve their goals at whatever cost. Friendships make both parties happy.
Friendship of Utility
There is a form of friendship that develops due to the benefits that each person brings. The shared benefit where each person plays a role to make a goal happen is the genesis of utility friendship. These form of association includes; business partners, colleagues at work, player mates, and schoolmates (Natali, 2009). this friendship founded on the collaborative effect of the things they do together. Once the joining factor removed, the friendship collapses.
Friendship of Pleasure
Pleasure based friendship are those based on the excitement and joy they bring to the people involved. The people in this form of association derive happiness from things they enjoy doing together. For example, having fitting hobbies, standard interest orientation, and hang out buddies. This friendship is based on shared interests and easily broken if one party takes a different dimension in interest. They are not long-term relationships but rather associations founded on weak links that elapse when the links are no longer there, and happiness is short-lived (Natali, 2009).
Friendship of the Good
the most durable type of bond and is not limited to either party. Its foundations are respect, love, compassion, appreciation, and concern for each other. Virtues are the symbolism of these forms of friendship, considering the other person better than themselves. This friendship upholds and esteems the persons in it to build worth and acceptance with the aim of friends’ growth, not personal. It is hard to find and develop, taking a lot of time to build and cultivate; hence are very few in a person’s life. The kind of friend who ensures you know what is right and wrong is quick to correct, applause, and criticize with equal measure. The examples include parents to children, marriage partners, and genuine friends (Natali, 2009).
Friendship and Happiness from Non-Aristotelian
Plato defines happiness as the highest aim of all moral thoughts and conducts and is acquired through living rightfully with people. Building worthy and fruitful friendships bring joy, without which happiness is not achievable (Lee, 2020). Socrates believed that only those people with self-knowledge could achieve -satisfaction. Socrates defines happiness as a fruit that emanates from the soul and our most profound good when we live the right life. Friendship cannot give ultimate joy but allows learn and practice happiness (Forte, 2017). Epicurus claims that satisfaction is a pleasure, and we do all things do to the pleasure we derive from them. Therefore, friendship is merely for comfort and helps live happy when we have friends (Debbarma, 2020).
References
Debbarma, S. (2020). The Idea of Happiness: A Study with the Perspective of Epicurus. International Journal of Research and Review, 7(2), 85-91.
Forte, J. M. (2017). The Quest for the Good Life: Ancient Philosophers on Happiness. The Review of Metaphysics, 70(3), 576-579.
Lee, J. K. (2020). Educational Philosophy and Happiness Principle of Plato and Mencius. Online Submission.
Natali, C. (Ed.). (2009). Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, Book VII: Symposium Aristotelicum. Oxford University Press on Demand.