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It’s true that Aristotle’s discussion of friendship (philia) hasn’t gotten much attention, but there’s no denying that he offers one of the finest and most enduringly valuable descriptions of friendship in Western philosophy in books VIII and IX. His three-part classification of friendships as friendships of Goodness, Pleasure, or Utility is still utilized in many current books on friendship as a starting point, to be either developed upon or criticized, demonstrating its continuing worth. Despite its many strengths, I will argue in this article that Aristotle’s description of friendships misses a lot of what we often consider to be fundamental to friendship and is sometimes self-contradictory and inconsistent internally.

In his more comprehensive theory of ethics, Aristotle places a significant emphasis on his conception of friendship. His philosophy of friendship discusses how important interpersonal connections are to living a good life. Aristotle believed that friendship was more than just an added benefit or bloom to a life that was already ideal and self-sufficient. Happiness has friendship as a fundamental component. It is also a need for happiness since, as Aristotle often notes, living alone is difficult and is not something that one would want, “even if he were to acquire all the other benefits.” Furthermore, he makes no mention of the possibility that leading a moral life may make someone who is horribly attractive or of poor birth happy.

So one of the many things required for happiness is friendship. It’s important to note that Aristotle’s perspective here has the advantage of being practical and taking into consideration the fact that factors like physical appearance, financial status, and the existence or absence of friendship really do affect how well our lives turn out.

The conflict that exists between the notions of independence and social dependence was one that Aristotle acquired from Plato. Because Aristotle often characterizes the ideal human being as self-sufficient, he is responsible for illuminating why such a person need companions. Since friendship offers the eudaimon certain psychological advantages that they cannot otherwise have, then in certain ways, they are not truly independent because they rely on their friends.

Two key justifications for why friendship is a necessary component of the good life may be found in Aristotle’s explanation of friendship. First of all, believing that one’s life is excellent is a necessary component of thriving. And since we learn a lot about ourselves and our lives through interacting with others, it helps to have strong connections with individuals who have wonderful lives so that you can more accurately and confidently judge how good their life is. In contrast to those who have friends, who, given their friends are equally interested in leading active lives, have their enthusiasm for virtuous action regularly replenished, persons who live in isolation struggle to maintain long-term interest and dedication in life’s activities.

According to Aristotle, friendship especially entails three things: affectionate acknowledgment of one another, benevolence, and reciprocal love. Aristotle makes a distinction between three different types of friendships: friendships based on virtue, pleasure, and usefulness. The ultimate kind of friendship is friendship of virtue; such friends are friends without conditions or limitations, and such friends are both outstanding people. According to Aristotle, the best kind of friendship is one that is founded on genuine love for the other person. And this can only be the case when the friendship’s unifying factor is mutual acknowledgment of one another’s qualities, which are fundamental traits. Contrarily, friendships based on usefulness and pleasure are inferior and selfish since they are founded on the “incidental” attributes of these two things. Even more so than the persons themselves, Aristotle claims that in the latter two friendships, one is a “friend to the pleasure” or a “friend to the benefit.”

Thus, the disagreeable notion that common people, who are not morally faultless, cannot participate in the real or ultimate kind of friendship, that of virtue, is presented to us. As a result, Aristotle’s notion is constrictive and doesn’t fit with how we often think of what friendship entails. John M. Cooper has persuasively stated that even if the other person is imperfect, love based on the other person’s positive traits binds the closest friendships (of virtue). Despite pointing out the argument’s genius, Ferdinand Schoeman and Gregory Vlastos reject it because it lacks complete textual backing and conflicts with Aristotle’s theories on attachment.

Aristotle placed a criteria for friendship that the vast majority of people cannot satisfy in his belief that real friendship is only possible for moral saints. It is limiting in a manner that isn’t applicable to or beneficial in the actual world. Aristotle overlooks, among other things, the unique characteristics of friendship, the feature of accepting another person’s flaws, morally delicate issues, acknowledging another person’s independence, and knowledge of potential conflicts of interest. Imagine two persons, one with a strong moral character and the other with a lot of moral failings. Because they really want the other to get what is good, they have positive feelings for one another. Now, does one of those people changing their morals strengthen such a relationship. Even while the reformed person could have changed, it’s not certain whether the friendship has. Do we actually see moral perfection when we think about what friendship is all about? The relationship Aristotle appears to be portraying here is more akin to respect or adoration, as many have noted. Excellence of character may be a component of friendship, but if not more significant, then at least as important are other factors, such as those described above, such as acceptance of someone for who they are. Aristotle excludes from the discussion issues pertaining to moral failure, moral support, and vulnerability by focusing on moral perfection.

But Aristotle appears to make the same mistake again and again by confusing what we enjoy about someone with why we want to be friends with them. The argument fits better than it would if Aristotle had employed the two distinct notions strictly separately since he seems to have combined them and used them interchangeably.

Yet another complex complaint goes far further. Aristotle confuses loving someone with admiring them for their qualities. Here, caution is required. Certainly, a person’s virtues are a part of who they are and may be one of numerous factors that make someone like them.

Another problem is that Aristotle doesn’t provide much support for his assertion that only friendships founded on admiration of virtue entail reciprocal good wishes for one another’s sake, while friendships founded on more incidental characteristics like pleasure or usefulness cannot involve such a thing. He would have had to provide evidence to support his thesis that only fundamentally admirable traits may motivate someone to like someone for their own reason. Nothing to the contrary is shown. Furthermore, it’s simple to imagine friendships based on unfavorable traits that, once they’re established, are founded on genuine concern for one another.

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