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The Meaning of Friendship
The concept of friendship has been discussed for thousands of years. Below are some links to academic articles and sources which attempt to bring together and summarise the definitions of friendship. If you have any links to contribute, please email research@friendship.com.au. We will be expanding this section in the near future to better cater to your research needs!
The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
"Friendship, as understood here, is a distinctively personal relationship that is
grounded in a concern on the part of each friend for the welfare of the other,
for the other's sake, and that involves some degree of intimacy. As such,
friendship is undoubtedly central to our lives, in part because the special
concern we have for our friends must have a place within a broader set of
concerns, including moral concerns, and in part because our friends can help
shape who we are as persons. Given this centrality, important questions arise
concerning the justification of friendship and, in this context, whether it is
permissible to “trade up” when someone new comes along, as well as concerning
the possibility of reconciling the demands of friendship with the demands of
morality in cases in which the two seem to conflict." [read entire article]
Helm, Bennett (2005) Friendship, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
the encyclopaedia of informal education
"When approaching the notion of friendship, our first problem is, as Graham Allan
(1996: 85) has commented, that there is a lack of firmly agreed and socially
acknowledged criteria for what makes a person a friend. In one setting we may
describe someone as a friend, in another the label may seem less appropriate. We
may have a very thin understanding of what friendship entails. For example,
Bellah et. al. (1996: 115), drawing upon Aristotle, suggest that the
traditional idea of friendship has three components: 'Friends must enjoy each
other's company, they must be useful to one another, and they must share a
common commitment to the good'. In contemporary western societies, it is
suggested, we tend to define friendship in terms of the first component, and
find the notion of utility a difficult to place within friendship." [read entire article]
Doyle, M. E. and Smith, M. K. (2002) Friendship: Theory and Experience, the encyclopaedia of informal education
Wikipedia Online Encylopedia
"Friendship is a type of interpersonal relationship that is
found among humans and among animals with rich intelligence, such as the
higher mammals and some birds. Cross-species friendships are common between humans
and domestic animals. Less common but still of note are friendships between a
non-human animal and another animal of a different species, such as a dog and
cat. Individuals in a friendship relationship will generally welcome each other's
company and often exhibit mutually helping behavior. Friendship is generally
considered to be a closer personal relationship than an acquaintanceship,
although there a range of 'degrees of intimacy' in both friends and
acquaintances. For most people, there is an overlap between friends and
acquaintances."
[read entire article]
Friendship, Wikipedia Online Encylopedia
Cicero
"6. Now friendship may be thus defined: a complete accord on all subjects
human and divine, joined with mutual goodwill and affection. And with the
exception of wisdom, I am inclined to think nothing better than this has been
given to man by the immortal gods. There are people who give the palm to riches
or to good health, or to power and office, many even to sensual pleasures. This
last is the ideal of brute beasts; and of the others we may say that they are
frail and uncertain, and depend less on our own prudence than on the caprice of
fortune. Then there are those who find the "chief good" in virtue. Well, that is
a noble doctrine. But the very virtue they talk of is the parent and preserver
of friendship, and without it friendship cannot possibly exist." [read entire article]
Cicero, M.T. On Friendship (De Amicitia), Translated by E. S. Shuckburgh, About.com
Aristotle
"[Aristotles] taxonomy begins with the premise that there are three main reasons why one
person might like someone else. (The verb, “philein,” which is cognate
to the noun “philia,” can sometimes be translated “like” or even
“love”—though in other cases philia involves very little in the way of
feeling.) One might like someone because he is good, or because he is useful, or
because he is pleasant. And so there are three bases for friendships, depending
on which of these qualities binds friends together. When two individuals
recognize that the other person is someone of good character, and they spend
time with each other, engaged in activities that exercise their virtues, then
they form one kind of friendship. If they are equally virtuous, their friendship
is perfect. If, however, there is a large gap in their moral development (as
between a parent and a small child, or between a husband and a wife), then
although their relationship may be based on the other person's good character,
it will be imperfect precisely because of their inequality.."
[read entire article]
Kraut, Richard Aristotle's Ethics, The Stanford Encyclopedia of
Philosophy (Summer 2005 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.),
Emerson
"Friendship may be said to require natures so rare and costly, each so well
tempered and so happily adapted, and withal so circumstanced, (for even in that
particular, a poet says, love demands that the parties be altogether paired,)
that its satisfaction can very seldom be assured. It cannot subsist in its
perfection, say some of those who are learned in this warm lore of the heart,
betwixt more than two. I am not quite so strict in my terms, perhaps because I
have never known so high a fellowship as others. I please my imagination more
with a circle of godlike men and women variously related to each other, and
between whom subsists a lofty intelligence. But I find this law of one to
one peremptory for conversation, which is the practice and consummation of
friendship. Do not mix waters too much. The best mix as ill as good and bad. You
shall have very useful and cheering discourse at several times with two several
men, but let all three of you come together, and you shall not have one new and
hearty word. Two may talk and one may hear, but three cannot take part in a
conversation of the most sincere and searching sort."
[read entire article]
Emerson, Ralph Waldo, ESSAY VI Friendship, Ralph Waldo Emerson Texts, http://www.emersoncentral.com/
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