Aristotle view friendship - Essay Example

According to Tutuska, Aristotle described friendship of utility as the one that is for the old and that it is easily dissolved. He also described it as acquaintance since it is based on something that is introduced into the relationship by the other person. He described friendship of pleasure as the one that is normally built among the young people as it has great influences from the pleasures and passions that are in their lives. Tutuska explains that these types of friendship are unstable and that they are bound to change with time which leads to dissolving of the friendship.

Aristotle explains that the only difference between friendship of utility and that of pleasure is that people in friendship of pleasure seeks for something that is pleasant to them at the moment whereas those seeking friendship of utility are looking for a business deal or long term benefits. It can also be identified that the bonds between individuals in friendship of utility are very weak and this leads to it being easily dissolved. Tutuska goes ahead to describe the third type of friendship as that friendship of virtue.

Aristotle termed this as the highest friendship that one can achieve as it is based on the fact that a person wishes the best their friends regardless of utility or pleasure. Aristotle calls it as a sort that is complete as it exists between people who are good and are alike in virtue. He terms it as a friendship that is long lasting and that it is tough to obtain as these types of people are hard to come by as it takes someone to do a lot of work to have virtuous friendship. Virtuous friendship requires a lot of time and care to be spent and therefore it limits the number of friends that can be found in it.

Friendship of virtue is felt among the good people and that it is resistant to slander. The main reasons that Aristotle values friendship so much is that friendship supersedes honour and justice. He argues that there is no any person who would wish to stay without a friend. He also says that those people who are in leadership and are given a great deal of power are in dire need of friendship and that law makers tend to take friendship with a lot of seriousness than justice. He terms friendship as glue that holds cities together and that it is beautiful by itself.

Aristotle also argues that friendship can be enjoyed since it is choiceworthy for its own sake and that it is something that is much greater that being honoured (Tutuska 353-355). Aristotle explains that it takes character to maintain virtuous friendships which helps in maintaining a solid community as communities are built around friendship. He also argues that virtuous friendships are very few and that friendships of utility and that of pleasure are the ones that keep the cities together. This makes it clear to us that there is still the need to retain honour and justice within friendships.

Ways in which friendship shape our public activity Friendship can be termed as a relationship that exists among people who are in good terms with each other as explained above. This means that when handling any activity in public, a person will be keen to take care of the feeling of other people. Therefore, people will avoid any speech or activity that can lead to any form of violence among the co-existing communities. This helps in the development of any nation as the environment that will be created in a peaceful nation will