Starting from Nico Kyle's Ethics, this paper tries to answer "Is friendship instrumental?" By using Aristotle's logic, we can understand his concept of friendship more deeply. The text of this analysis is concentrated in the eighth volume of Nicokal Ethics.
One.
Although scholars are still controversial about the compilation of Nicola book of kells's Ethics and the contents of some chapters, at present, our discussion can only start with the text. Judging from the compilation style, friendship as a virtue accounts for about one-fifth of the book. Moreover, other concepts that occupy an important position in Aristotle's ethics, such as goodness, polis, justice and happiness, also appeared in the process of discussing friendship.
At the beginning of the eighth volume, Aristotle directly put forward a judgment: "It is a virtue or contains a virtue". Later, he listed the reasons why fraternity is "one of the most necessary things in life". First of all, friends can accept or take the initiative to show kindness, provide help and help themselves to be kind; Secondly, friendship is human nature; Third, the political life of the polis needs friendship.
Does this mean that friends or friendships are instrumental? Liao Shenbai emphasized in his comments on the text that although Aristotle listed the reasons why these friendships were necessary, it did not show that friends were instrumental. Whether this opinion is appropriate or not, let's discuss it in the following text.
Aristotle then pointed out three lovely things and thought that love or fraternity was based on them. These three things are good, pleasant and useful respectively. Because people think that useful things are things that can produce some kind of goodness and happiness, and only good and pleasant things are lovely things as an end. Here, Aristotle pointed out that "although things that are good in themselves are cute on the whole, only things that are good for one person are cute for that person." . Here, Aristotle also drew a clearer line of friendship: mutual goodwill and mutual understanding of each other's goodwill. Of course, the object can't be inanimate, and the good reason needs to be one of the above three. Among those who love each other for these three reasons, those who love each other for pleasure and usefulness all love each other because they can get benefits from each other. This makes the two kinds of friendship even, and once the reasons for friendship change, friendship will collapse. Beneficial friendship is the most common among the elderly, middle-aged and young people, aiming at making profits, while happy friendship often exists among young people. Perfect friendship is "friendship between good people and people with similar virtues", which is different from the first two kinds of friendship. In this kind of virtue friendship, first of all, each party is a good person and wants his friends to become better because of themselves; Secondly, they are generally good people, compared with their friends, so they are good, pleasant and useful on two levels; Third, this friendship is naturally lasting, because it contains all the characteristics of friends; Fourth, what each party gets from this friendship is the same or similar; Fifth, only this kind of friendship between good people will not alienate each other.
This seems to answer the question just raised to some extent, that is, do people need friends because they are instrumental?
It can be said that at a useful level. In Aristotle's exposition, useful things, as one of the reasons for love, are not ends but means. It is something that can produce some kind of goodness and happiness. Powerful people make useful friends, and this kind of friendship also appears among the elderly and young people who are for profit. The analogy is friendship, which contains beauty similar to perfect friendship, but only occasionally. Useful is not lasting. This kind of friendship is not perfect, so this kind of friend can't be regarded as a friend in the strict sense.
"Happy friendship is closer to correct friendship", Aristotle wrote. Because, in this friendship, both sides can get happiness from the same things and feel happy with each other; Greater generosity (rather than haggling like a useful friendship) also exists in this friendship. Aristotle agrees with people's nature of pursuing happiness and avoiding pain, and respects the view that "happiness is a kind of goodness". In addition, Aristotle also showed that happiness and kindness are both ends, so happy friendship is far from instrumental.
In the love of goodness, goodness itself is an end. Then it can't be considered as a tool.
Two.
However, Aristotle went on to discuss the importance of friendship. This seems to bring some space for the discussion on whether friendship is a tool.
Friendship and justice exist in all things, and friendship lies in similarities. The stronger the friendship, the higher the demand for justice. In many works, friendship is often regarded as an element of the city-state and discussed with justice.
Accordingly, in the first chapter of Volume VIII, Aristotle wrote, "Lawmakers also value friendship over justice. ..... If people are friends, they don't need justice, but if they are just fair, they still need friendship. " Aristotle believes that the friendship of virtue is the most perfect friendship, and friends of virtue hope to be good to each other. Generally speaking, they are good people. Compared with their friends, they are good, pleasant and useful. If the relationship between everyone in the polis is this kind of friendship, then it is obvious that the polis does not need justice at this time. But it is impossible for everyone in the polis to have virtue, and the friend nature of virtue also determines that a person cannot have many real friends. According to Aristotle's deduction, all isomorphism is a part of political isomorphism, and each isomorphism has some kind of justice and friendship. In his exposition, the concept of "friendship" is used far beyond the application scope of the word "friendship" in the Chinese context. This word can be used to describe the relationship between all people, from friends to family and even the same body. The Greek meaning of this word has several points: the actor or recliner does something voluntarily, willingly and out of habit.
Back in the context of ancient Greece, we will understand why the word "friendship" is used to describe all the relationships between people. All love seems to find its source from the love of family, although the love between families is described by an entry put by Aristotle under love. Before the family appeared in the polis, the rulers loved the ruled as parents loved their children. Parents love their children as part of themselves, and children love their parents because they regard the latter as their source; The friendship between partners and relatives is similar to that between brothers, and the friendship between brothers is linked by blood and lives together; The love between husband and wife, which originates from nature, is both useful and happy, and can also be added with virtue. Friendship, which pervades all interpersonal relationships, certainly plays an important role in Greek life. Aristotle entrusted his will to his friend Antipat before his death, which shows the importance of the relationship with friends at that time. The development of democracy in the classical Greek era made the contact between citizens closer: the number of citizens in the city-state was small, and they knew each other a lot in various public affairs, and the relationship between citizens also largely replaced the previous clan membership. As far as "cohabitation" is concerned, friends and family are indeed quite comparable. Politically, Aristotle added the public dining system to the construction of his ideal city-state to maintain the unity and cohesion of citizens, which is also a friendly relationship. Friendship is the link between the city-states. So is justice. The justice seen in law pays less attention to the feelings between individuals, so friendship is needed to connect citizens. This is from the city-state as a whole.
For individuals in the polis, friendship has another importance. Aristotle went on to describe unequal friendship-such as friendship between ruler and ruled, between parents and children, and between husband and wife. This kind of fraternity, which includes the dominant party, needs to be given to each other in proportion to produce equality of fraternity. For example, the father's love for his children is to enhance the kindness of the children, although the children's love for their fathers cannot be rewarded. As for that kind of equal friendship, both friends "love their own interests, but they also repay each other by wishing the other good and giving him happiness."
Judging from the purpose of Aristotle's founding Nicokal ethics, it seems that the answer to the question will be clearer. In the second chapter of the first volume, he wrote that it is the purpose of his research to obtain the goodness of human nature for a person. When discussing virtue, he repeatedly emphasized the importance of "moderation". In his discussion of friendship, he took pains to distinguish between truly perfect virtue friendship and similar friendship in various analogies. This is the same as his attitude elsewhere in the book: his purpose is to tell the true nature of goodness, not to make an analogy with it. In this book on ethics, the category of "friendship" covers all the relationships between people. Whether in length or structure, the importance of friendship just proves that it denies its instrumental side: in Aristotle's works, such a crucial category can not be justified if it is only in an instrumental position.
Three.
From another point of view, we can also regard friendship and other good things as the similarity of purpose, so as to observe friendship itself as an end.
For example, Aristotle said in the third chapter of the eighth volume that "perfect friendship is the friendship between good people and people with similar virtues", and added in the fourth chapter of the same volume that "everything that each party gets from this friendship is the same or similar". In the eighth volume, he said that "there are many things that are the same between equal citizens", so "friendship and justice are the most under democracy". At the same time, he regards slaves as a tool of life, so he thinks that a person "can't have feelings for slaves, but may have feelings for slaves as people." Obviously, this kind of friendship does not exist among non-citizens. As for perfect friendship, it exists among the least people. Views on friendship are no different from those on other specific virtues.
Four.
To sum up, in Aristotle's perfect friendship sense, it should not include instrumentality, but it is not in its analogy sense.
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