Make Friends

Nov 13

Pick your Professor

Love is indisputably a key part of the good life. In this session, we’ll consider the role that philosophy can play in helping us understand love of friends and family. We’ll read Aristotle’s beautiful meditations on philia (friendship) and consider the three categories of friendship he supposes contribute to our good lives. We’ll also consider objections to Aristotle’s view that the highest forms of friendship require virtue.  

By the end of this session, you will:

  1. Understand Aristotle’s argument for the claim that the highest forms of philia require mutual commitment to virtue
  2. Debate objections and counterexamples to Aristotle’s theory of love and friendship
  3. Reflect on the idea that love is a virtue capable of development.

Read This:

Primary: Aristotle on Friendship (selections from Nicomachean Ethics, Book VIII)

Secondary: Friendship and Egalitarian Love

Do This:

Required:

  • After you’ve finished today’s reading, make sure you complete the reading quiz, which you can access through your section’s Canvas page.

Suggested: Think about all the qualities your best friend has. List 5-10 of them. These should be reasons why you admire this person. Now send it to them 🙂

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