Social Ethics

This paper explores the ethical implications of friendship and the role it has played in societies throughout history. A divergence becomes apparent in societies that hold to a teleological ethical framework and constitutive narrative tradition, and societies that adhere to a duty based ethic.

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Journal of Ethics and Social Philosophy

This article takes its bearings from Martha Nussbaum’s “Non-Relative Virtues: An Aristotelian Approach.” There Nussbaum proposes an analytic framework that is intended to allow those who disagree about the virtues, in particular due to cultural differences, to engage in fruitful dialogue with one another. To explore what such an approach could look like in practice, this article considers the case study of friendship. It critiques Aristotle’s account of that virtue and provides an alternative based on contemporary egalitarian assumptions and aspirations. By placing these two accounts into conversation with one another, the analysis demonstrates the promise of cross-cultural and cross-historical dialogue about the virtues.

Civic or political friendship (politikē philia) is a bond of reciprocal good will between fellow citizens (see CITIZENSHIP) expressed through norms of civic behavior, such as mutual recognition of moral equality, mutual concern, and mutual defense and support. Theories of civic friendship are, at their heart, normative arguments about the proper nature of political unity – that is to say, arguments about how fellow citizens in general should regard and relate to one another in the public sphere. The original and foremost theorist of civic friendship is Aristotle (see ARISTOTLE), who, in Nichomachean Ethics, argues that politically equal citizens (see EQUALITY) should wish their fellow citizens well and seek to do well by them for their own sakes, rather than exclusively pursuing self-interest or focusing on commitments to members of a particular faction, party, clan, or other group within a political community. (Aristotle: 1984) Aristotle's conception is championed by numerous contemporary political thinkers, among them Sibyl A. Schwarzenbach, who argues that civic friendship is a necessary condition for true justice, and Hauke Brunkhorst, who leverages civic friendship on behalf of a cosmopolitan theory of solidarity. (Schwarzenbach 2009; Brunkhorst: 2005)

ABSTRACT: What is friendship? Does the word “friendship” have the same meaning, the same concept in different cultures? And if not, what are the differences? There is no doubt that abstract notions in various cultures and traditions refer to different meanings. This paper tries to study the difference between the notions of “friendship” in two traditions. The approach is neither philosophical, nor sociological; rather a glance to literature is proposed. A comparison between two literary traditions: the Iranian one and the ancient classic literature, that is to say Greek and Roman traditions. In European tradition, it is insisted that man should have friends who are good and wise and he can trust them. Here, related to friendship, what are highlighted are the concepts of “Benevolence” and “Virtue”. But in Iranian tradition, besides encouraging having social relations and making friends, it is suggested to avoid getting close to the other. Here, friend is not defined as a human being to whom one tries to get close; friend is the “other”, the one that you should try to keep far enough from yourself. In Iranian tradition, this insisting on beholding the limits and boundaries with the “other”, that is “friend”, may be a result of the historical events.

The article argues that friendship is profoundly sociological, and ought to be given more attention by sociologists. It shows that it is misleading to study friendship concentrating on dyadic links: if a researcher collects information on other ties “in the background” the relationship can appear in quite a different light. In this sense, friendship is not merely a topic of marginal interest in sociology but useful for examining many aspects of the "structure" of society, social inequalities and access to particular positions.

2011

Aristotle’s quote–“The desire for friendship comes quickly. Friendship does not’’– speaks to a deep human need and longing. People with a valued status, as well as those with a devalued status, share aspirations for friendship and love relationships. The latter group refers to those people who have characteristics that are negatively valued in society and community and who consequently experience ostracism and atypical life experiences. All people with a devalued status, regardless of the cause of their devaluation, could be asked, ‘What would your ideal life look like?’ The answers, if unfettered by low expectations, are likely to resonate with the phrase, ‘a life like anyone else.’ Variants of this phrase include ‘a typical life,’ ‘an ordinary life’ and ‘a life of meaning.’ There is generally broad agreement in Western cultures that the good things of life typically include such things as having a home, spending one’s time meaningfully, loving and being loved, having a range of re...

2015

In this article I explore the contemporary normative meanings of friendship, unpacking the subject through two different questions: “what is a good friend?” and “what is an intimate friend?” Drawing on survey data from a national representative sample (n = 1142), the topic is explored in the context of a southern European country (Portugal) that represents an interesting case study, for its characteristics of late, though abrupt, entrance into late modernity. Statistical analysis of the results enabled the construction of an exploratory typology of representations of friendship, according to the meanings ascribed to friends: family-oriented; trust-oriented; self-oriented; and presence-oriented. Results inspire a two-folded interpretation. On the one hand, they point to a pervasiveness of hegemonic representations such as friendship as trust and self-disclosure, namely among the younger and more educated. On the other hand, they highlight the pervasiveness of kinship ties in the definition of friendship, namely among the elderly and less educated. This suggests that patterns of suffusion may not only refer to more individualized and plural arrangements of personal life, but also to the persistence of more traditional representations and practices, characterized by an ideological commitment to the family in its more institutional forms.

Canadian Social Science, 2010