Aristotle is one of the earliest ancient Greek philosophers to discuss on the topic of Philia, which is usually translated to friendship. For Aristotle, the notion of living a good life constitutes the relationships between human beings. As social creatures, we form numerous friendships throughout the different stages in life, and these friendships varies in different degrees. Ultimately, Aristotle believes that we should maintain and keep the ‘perfect’ friendship. This is necessary for our happiness as a close friend would benefit us and understand ourselves better since they would be more aware of our circumstances. However at some point of time, we would have experienced drifting apart with friends; the best friend we called in school may
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It is the mutual acceptance friends have for each other that maintains and enable a friendship to overcome factors that may pose as a threat to the friendship. According to Richard Wollheim, acceptance is the core of a friendship, where “acceptance involves is the overcoming of confusion, the abatement of intolerance, and the relinquishment of certain controlling attitudes.”(pp.280) This seems to imply that acceptance is not only understanding your friend as who he is, but it also constitutes this attitude of being magnanimous and forgiveness, where one is able to accept your friend though he may does something unpleasant. As two different individuals, there are bound to be some conflicts between each other. But it is this fundamental attitude of mutual acceptance they have for each other that they are able to maintain the friendship through being magnanimous and forgiving. Mutuality is important here to maintain the friendship as a lack of mutual acceptance would result in a one-sided acceptance which will not be sufficient to maintain the friendship. For example, June may do something that Mary dislikes, but Mary having this acceptance for her friend, is willing to overlook the small differences they have. However on the other hand, when Mary does something that June dislikes and June refuse to accept or understand Mary’s decisions, it threatens the friendship between them by being unable to overcome the …show more content…
Circumstances that are usually beyond our control is an example of external threat. For example when two friends are in different geographical locations, they tend to drift apart because the opportunity for them to interact and shared activity would decrease. One of the early Chinese philosopher Confucius, agrees that external factors such unequal status presents itself as a threat to the friendship between two friends as it could potentially bring harm to the two individuals. The story of Yuan Qiao and Chu Pou is an example that exemplifies Confucius’ view. Yuan Qiao and Chu Pou started out as friends having the equal status. However when Chu Pou’s daughter became an empress, Yuan Qiao noticed the changed in Chu Pou’s status and could foresee the kind of harm it could bring upon both of them if they were continue to be friends. Thus before any harm was done, Yuan Qiao initiated to severe their friendship. However is being unequal in status that threatens a friendship? In today’s context, imagine two friends which are both working as an employee of different company. When one of them got promoted and becomes a manager, their differences in power and authority between them results in greater inequality. Simone Weil also claims that there can be no friendship when inequality arises (pp. 156). And when there are inequality, the one with the lesser authority would feel more inferior and starts to
It is the mutual acceptance friends have for each other that maintains and enable a friendship to overcome factors that may pose as a threat to the friendship. According to Richard Wollheim, acceptance is the core of a friendship, where “acceptance involves is the overcoming of confusion, the abatement of intolerance, and the relinquishment of certain controlling attitudes.”(pp.280) This seems to imply that acceptance is not only understanding your friend as who he is, but it also constitutes this attitude of being magnanimous and forgiveness, where one is able to accept your friend though he may does something unpleasant. As two different individuals, there are bound to be some conflicts between each other. But it is this fundamental attitude of mutual acceptance they have for each other that they are able to maintain the friendship through being magnanimous and forgiving. Mutuality is important here to maintain the friendship as a lack of mutual acceptance would result in a one-sided acceptance which will not be sufficient to maintain the friendship. For example, June may do something that Mary dislikes, but Mary having this acceptance for her friend, is willing to overlook the small differences they have. However on the other hand, when Mary does something that June dislikes and June refuse to accept or understand Mary’s decisions, it threatens the friendship between them by being unable to overcome the …show more content…
Circumstances that are usually beyond our control is an example of external threat. For example when two friends are in different geographical locations, they tend to drift apart because the opportunity for them to interact and shared activity would decrease. One of the early Chinese philosopher Confucius, agrees that external factors such unequal status presents itself as a threat to the friendship between two friends as it could potentially bring harm to the two individuals. The story of Yuan Qiao and Chu Pou is an example that exemplifies Confucius’ view. Yuan Qiao and Chu Pou started out as friends having the equal status. However when Chu Pou’s daughter became an empress, Yuan Qiao noticed the changed in Chu Pou’s status and could foresee the kind of harm it could bring upon both of them if they were continue to be friends. Thus before any harm was done, Yuan Qiao initiated to severe their friendship. However is being unequal in status that threatens a friendship? In today’s context, imagine two friends which are both working as an employee of different company. When one of them got promoted and becomes a manager, their differences in power and authority between them results in greater inequality. Simone Weil also claims that there can be no friendship when inequality arises (pp. 156). And when there are inequality, the one with the lesser authority would feel more inferior and starts to