Abstract
This paper aims to discuss the link between friendship and self-sufficiency in Aristotle’s ethical and political works. Friendship and self-sufficiency are needed in order to achieve happiness, which consists in the full actualization of the good possibilities inscribed in human nature. It is the irreducible complexity of human nature that gives origin to opposite (but not contradictory) statements in Aristotle’s texts, according to which in one sense, human beings, different from gods, cannot be happy alone; but in another sense, from the point of view of his intellect (nous), the divine part in human nature man can be happy alone. The different points of view adopted by Aristotle allow for the application of different – even opposite – theoretical frames, or for what I would like to call a ‘multifocal approach’: from different point of views, Aristotle can thus be said to maintain that for a human being to be happy, he or she needs both friendship and self-sufficiency.
Notes
- 1.
- 2.
See, e.g., Met. 4.2 1003a33.
- 3.
For friendship see also Irrera, in this volume.
- 4.
On happiness see also Irrera, in this volume.
- 5.
The translation of the Nicomachean Ethics used in this chapter is based on Rackham’s, with modifications.
- 6.
The translation of the Politics used here is based on Rackham’s, with modifications.
- 7.
Berti 2003, 137.
- 8.
See further the Indice ragionato dei concetti in Aristotele 2008, 1230–1232.
- 9.
Mazzarelli in Aristotele 1996, 31.
- 10.
Gastaldi 2003, 179.
- 11.
The translation of the Eudemian Ethics used in this chapter is based on Rackham’s, with modifications.
- 12.
Cf. Cattanei et al. 2016.
- 13.
Cf. Trottmann 1996, 312: “Le réalisme aristotélicien en est bien conscient, et c’est pourquoi l’Éthique à Nicomaque est prolongée par la Politique. L’exercise de la contemplation est encore réservé à une élite qui est elle-même soumise aux besoins matériels du corps, à ceux spirtuels de la communication humaine.”
- 14.
Jost 2002, 26.
References
Aristotle. 1926. The Nicomachean Ethics. Trans. H. Rackham. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
———. 1932. Politics. Trans. H. Rackham. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
———. 1935. Eudemian Ethics. Trans. H. Rackham. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
———. 1996 [1993]. Etica Nicomachea. Trans. C. Mazzarelli. Milan: Rusconi.
Aristotele. 2008. Le tre Etiche. Ed. Maurizio Migliori. Trans. Arianna Fermani. Milan: Bompiani.
Berti, Enrico. 2003. Le emozioni dell’amicizia e la filosofia. In La filosofia e le emozioni, ed. Pasquale Venditti, 137–153. Florence: Le Monnier.
Cattanei, Elisabetta, Arianna Fermani, and Maurizio Migliori, eds. 2016. By the Sophists to Aristotle through Plato. Sankt Augustin: Academia Verlag.
Fermani, Arianna. 2012. L’etica di Aristotele. Brescia: Morcelliana.
———. 2014. To kakon pollachôs legetai: the plurivocity of the notion of evil in Aristotelian Ethics. In The Bloomsbury Companion to Aristotle, ed. Claudia Baracchi, 241–259. London: Bloomsbury.
Fermani, Arianna, and Benedetta Giovanola. 2013. Ethics, Economic Organizations and Human Flourishing. Lessons from Plato and Aristotle. In Leadership Through the Classics, ed. Gregory P. Prastacos, Fuming Wang, and Klas Eric Soderquist, 273–287. Dordrecht: Springer.
Gastaldi, Silvia. 2003. Bios hairetotatos: generi di vita e felicità in Aristotele. Naples: Bibliopolis.
Jost, Lawrence. 2002. Introduction. Apeiron 35(4): ix–xxxiii.
Trottmann, Christian. 1996. Le nœud de l’anthropologie aristotélicienne: ses conséquences théologiques et politiques. Revue thomiste 96: 312–326.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2017 Springer International Publishing AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Fermani, A. (2017). Between Friendship and Self-sufficiency. The Possibility of “Human Flourishing” in the Relationship Between Aristotle’s Ethics and Politics: A Multifocal Approach. In: Cohen de Lara, E., Brouwer, R. (eds) Aristotle’s Practical Philosophy. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-64825-5_7
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-64825-5_7
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-64824-8
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-64825-5
eBook Packages: Religion and PhilosophyPhilosophy and Religion (R0)