Human beings rely on the satisfaction of others. Human beings have been gifted with reason, from this they think about their actions and how that might affect others. In Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics Aristotle examines the role that friendship has in life. His analyzation leads to concepts of human beings not being able to survive without friends and the fact that there is a friend for every person. Humans are beings that want love and affection from another person; the first person that a human meets when they are born is usually their mother. The child feels a warmth and a sense of belonging and through that they are able to gain emotions. These emotional boxes that appear during infancy are longing to be fulfilled at every stage of life.
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Some scholars credit the idea of living without friends as a good life. The intellectuals that believe this ideology consider that without friends you only have yourself to worry about and you can work on building up to your potential greatness, but Aristotle believes that “…without friends, no one would choose to live, even if he possessed all other goods…” (Aristotle 163). Moreover, Aristotle is implying that no matter how great a person becomes, they will not be able to live without friends. There is no amount of success that could account for the loss a person would endure if they did not have friends. He defines friendship as love, “The forms of friendship, then, are three, equal in number to the things that are loveable…” (Aristotle 166). The author describes three types of friendship, one of pleasure, one of utility, and one of goodness; a person who bases their friendship on utility “…do not love each other in themselves, but only insofar as they come to have something good from the other” (Aristotle 166). Aristotle articulates that friendships of utility are popular among the “old…as well as among all those in their prime, or the young, who pursue what is advantageous” (Aristotle 167). The argument of the foundation of friendship beginning at such a young age is valid, by virtue that “…parents feel affection for their children on the ground that they are something of their own, whereas children feel affection for their parents on the grounds that they themselves are something that comes from them” (Aristotle 181). Children are obligated to progress through the stage of learning who their parents are, they develop a friendship based on utility. When a child is born, they depend on their parents for food, shelter, and clothing. If the parents provide these things the child forms a positive bond that develops into a friendship, due to mutual
Some scholars credit the idea of living without friends as a good life. The intellectuals that believe this ideology consider that without friends you only have yourself to worry about and you can work on building up to your potential greatness, but Aristotle believes that “…without friends, no one would choose to live, even if he possessed all other goods…” (Aristotle 163). Moreover, Aristotle is implying that no matter how great a person becomes, they will not be able to live without friends. There is no amount of success that could account for the loss a person would endure if they did not have friends. He defines friendship as love, “The forms of friendship, then, are three, equal in number to the things that are loveable…” (Aristotle 166). The author describes three types of friendship, one of pleasure, one of utility, and one of goodness; a person who bases their friendship on utility “…do not love each other in themselves, but only insofar as they come to have something good from the other” (Aristotle 166). Aristotle articulates that friendships of utility are popular among the “old…as well as among all those in their prime, or the young, who pursue what is advantageous” (Aristotle 167). The argument of the foundation of friendship beginning at such a young age is valid, by virtue that “…parents feel affection for their children on the ground that they are something of their own, whereas children feel affection for their parents on the grounds that they themselves are something that comes from them” (Aristotle 181). Children are obligated to progress through the stage of learning who their parents are, they develop a friendship based on utility. When a child is born, they depend on their parents for food, shelter, and clothing. If the parents provide these things the child forms a positive bond that develops into a friendship, due to mutual