Abstract
Aristotle’s concept of friendship (philia), in particular the friendship between citizens, has had a significant impact on modern political philosophy. In a just state, citizens experience friendship with each other in that they wish each other well for their own sake and do things for each other even though they do not know each other. An important idea that runs throughout Aristotle’s ethical and political works is that citizens aim at promoting the common good. Aristotle defines political friendship as a concord (homonoia) which is a friendship of utility that comprises legal friendship and moral friendship. Political friendship is elaborated in the different constitutions (EN VIII.10, Pol. III.5, IV.2) and can concern different relationships—between citizens, between cities, and among human beings (EN VIII and IX). Political friendship creates concord in society and prevents violence and strife. Aristotle’s concept of political friendship could thus serve as model for contemporary communities, satisfying a growing need for social and global unity beyond liberty or justice. Aristotle insists that friendship (philia) is virtue, and concerns emotion and noble actions aimed at living well together. Therefore, political friendship is the greatest of blessings for the state, since it is the best safeguard against revolution and preserves the unity of the state (Pol. 1262b7–8).
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Notes
- 1.
Edition used: Aristotle, The complete works of Aristotle: the Revised Oxford Translation. Edited by Jonathan Barnes. Three works are especially relevant for Aristotle’s political theory: Nicomachean Ethics, Eudemian Ethics, and Politics.
- 2.
Editions used: Nicomachean Ethics, edited by Terence Irwin and Nicomachean Ethics, Clarendon Aristotle Series.
- 3.
- 4.
Mulgan (1977).
- 5.
Other scholars, especially Michael Sandel, Michael Walzer, and Amitai Etzioni are often faulted for undermining community feeling (or political affection or friendship), even though they insist they inherit Aristotle’s viewpoints, especially justice as a virtue.
- 6.
Durkheim (2014).
- 7.
For the history of solidarity, see Wilde (2013).
- 8.
Derrida (1997).
- 9.
Humans find fulfilment and happiness only in relatedness and solidarity’ with their fellow humans. Humanistic ethics affirms life through the unfolding of human powers, provided that this empowerment is not at the expense of others, for this would be tantamount to evil. In this conception, virtue is regarded as self-responsibility and vice as irresponsibility. See Fromm (2003).
- 10.
Frank (2005), pp. 150–151 and 161–163.
- 11.
Bryan (2009), pp. 758–759.
- 12.
Edition used: The Complete Works of Aristotle: the Revised Oxford Translation. Edited by Jonathan Barnes.
- 13.
Cooper (1980, p. 300) explains that philia is (1) mutual awareness and liking, (2) a reciprocal wishing the other well for the other’s sake, and (3) a reciprocal, practical “doing” of things for that other may be considered the denominators common to all friendships throughout Aristotle’s works. Here we must notice friendship is not merely an emotion; it requires “actual social interaction,” active engagement in one another’s lives (EN 1157b, 1171b–1172a, and Pol. 1280b). But Price (1989), chapter 5 who is another expert of Aristotle’s philia disagrees with Cooper. For more explanation, see Schwarzenbach (1996), p. 100.
- 14.
Aristotle emphasizes friendship as ‘feeling’ in the friendship of pleasure between young people. He says “for their lives are guided by their feelings, and they pursue above all what is pleasant for themselves and what is at hand…Young people are prone to erotic passion, since this mostly accords with feelings, and is caused by pleasure; that is why they love and quickly stop, often changing in a single day” (EN 1156a32–1156b4). I think that Aristotle believes the love for feeling is the main characteristic aspect for erotic love (eros) as the one of kinds of the friendship of pleasure, instead of philia.
- 15.
Aristotle (1998).
- 16.
Kalimtzis (2000), pp. 51–52.
- 17.
Edition used: The Complete Works of Aristotle: the Revised Oxford Translation. Edited by Jonathan Barnes.
- 18.
Here Aristotle mentions that “homonoia is the friendship of fellow citizens” (EE 1241a33).
- 19.
Here Aristotle mentions that “homonoia also appears to be a features of friendship” (EN 1167a22) and “homonoia, then, is apparently political friendship” (EN 1167b3).
- 20.
Antiphon (2002).
- 21.
Xenophon (2013).
- 22.
Plato (1997).
- 23.
Cicero (1887).
- 24.
Recitation in Stern-Gillet (1995), p. 149.
- 25.
This idea is also mentioned in 1162a20–22: “For the other animals, the community goes only as far as childbearing, but also for the benefits in their life.”
- 26.
Kouloumbaritses (1981), pp. 198–199.
- 27.
Recitation in Kalimtzis (2000), pp. 63–64.
- 28.
Barker (1959).
- 29.
Kronman (1979).
- 30.
Yack (1993), p. 105.
- 31.
Cartland says that Yack does not consider the question of whether political pluralism (i.e., differences of opinion regarding moral dilemmas) is compatible with prudence and, therefore, whether the polity can achieve eudaimonia. Cartland (2011), p. 40.
- 32.
But Yack (1985) insisted that political friendship has the double meanings, both friendship for utility and for virtue in his older article, “Community and Conflict in Aristotle’s Political Philosophy”.
- 33.
Cooper (1980), p. 305.
- 34.
Stern-Gillet (1995), p. 149 confirms the rational meaning of political friendship, saying that “concord (homonoia) or friendship inevitably prevails between those who obey reason and recognize the irrelevance of such contingent factors as custom, ethnicity, and geography.”
- 35.
“But civic friendship is that resting on equality; it is based on utility; and just as cities are friends to one another, so in the like way are citizen.” (EE 1242b24, trans. J. Solomon).
- 36.
Editions used for Physics and Poetics: The Complete Works of Aristotle: the Revised Oxford Translation. Edited by Jonathan Barnes.
- 37.
“There are six parts consequently of every tragedy, that make it the sort of tragedy it is, viz. a plot, characters, diction, thought, spectacle, and melody; two of them arising from the means, one from the manner, and three from the objects of the dramatic imitation, and there is nothing else besides these six…” (Poet. 1450a7–15 Trans. I. Bywater).
- 38.
- 39.
Recitation Wilde (2013), pp. 3–6.
- 40.
Hutter (1978), p. 110.
- 41.
Schwarzenbach regards political friendship as ‘care’; Aristotle repeatedly urges a “common care” (koinon epimeleian) when advising his statesmen in the EN 1180a2, and he uses the term ‘care’ (epimeleia) in a political context throughout his Politics (1261b27, 1263a27, 1293b13, 1299a20, 1300a5, 1325a7, 1328b12, 1335a7, 1395b20).
- 42.
Fraser and Honneth (2003).
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Jang, M. (2018). Aristotle’s Political Friendship (politike philia) as Solidarity. In: Huppes-Cluysenaer, L., Coelho, N. (eds) Aristotle on Emotions in Law and Politics. Law and Philosophy Library, vol 121. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-66703-4_20
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