Abstract
For a long time I was single. I relied heavily on friends for company, support and affection. And most of the time I was happy about that. Implicitly, I agreed with Aristotle: who would choose to live without friends even if they had every other good thing, he said. Moreover, I regarded myself as exceptionally lucky with my friends and still do.
‘Their relationship consisted In discussing if it existed.’
Thom Gunn
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Further Reading and References
Ray Pahl’s research mentioned here was carried out for the launch of the Blackberry Pearl.
Aristotle’s examination of friendship is found in his Nico-machean Ethics chapters VIII and IX. A new translation, introduction and commentary by Sarah Broadie and Christopher Rowe published by Oxford University Press (2002) is clear and helpful. All my quotes from Aristotle come from this Ethics unless stated. He does discuss friendship elsewhere, notably in the Eudemian Ethics which is usually taken to be the main source for the Nicomachean Ethics. And also in the Art of Rhetoric 6.2.4.
The thought experiment of Nietzsche is from Human, All Too Human Volume I, 376.
In writing the new edition of this book, I’ve been indebted to Alexander Nehamas’ Gifford Lectures of 2008, entitled ‘“Because it was he, because it was I”: Friendship and its place in life’, available online.
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© 2010 Mark Vernon
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Vernon, M. (2010). Introduction. In: The Meaning of Friendship. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-230-27535-5_1
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