It is hard to imagine a good life without friendship. But what precisely makes friendship so valuable? And what is friendship at all? What unites friends and distinguishes them from others? Is the preference we give to friends rationally and morally justifiable? This collection of thirteen new essays on the philosophy of friendship considers such questions. In particular, it offers new interpretations of the answers given by famous classic philosophers such as Plato, Aristotle and Kant and provides fresh answers by leading contemporary philosophers. It is organized around five topics: the nature of friendship, the unity of friendship, friendship and reason, friendship and morality, and the place of friendship in a good life.
- friendship,
- philosophy,
- reason,
- morality,
- belief,
- emotion,
- egoism,
- relationships,
- Aristotle,
- Montaigne,
- Plato,
- Kant,
- Kierkegaard
Aristotle's notion of friendship / Spyros Benetatos -- The character of friendship / Laurence Thomas -- Friendship in Kallipolis / Damian Caluori -- Montaigne's 'perfect' friendship / Ullrich Langer -- Relationships and emotions / Michael Slote -- Friendships: epistemically dangerous liaisons? / Curtis Brown -- How to be a non-reductionist about reasons of friendship / Jeffrey Seidman -- Friendship in Kant's moral thought / Oliver Sensen -- Consequentialism and friendship / Alastair Norcross -- Can a Christian be a friend? God, friendship and love of neighbor / John Lippitt -- The goods of friendship / Thomas Hurka -- Friendship and friends in the stoic theory of the good life / Anthony A. Long -- Aesthetics and the art of friendship / Sheila Lintott.