The document discusses Aristotle's views on friendship and happiness. It summarizes that for Aristotle, true friendship is based on mutual respect for each other's virtues, and that friends want the best for one another. Aristotle believed that happiness means finding purpose to realize one's potential while becoming the best version of oneself. The document also notes that Aristotle distinguished three types of friendship: those based on pleasure, utility, and virtue.

1. Aristotle, Friendship, and the Pursuit of Happiness
MTSU Honors – Aug. 30, 2022
James Phil Oliver
Department of Philosophy/RS, MTSU
1301 East Main Street, Murfreesboro, TN
37132-0001
300 James Union Building
(615) 898-2050, 898-2907
Campus Mail Box 73
● Phil.Oliver@mtsu.edu
● JPOsopher.blogspot.com
● twitter.com/OSOPHER

2. Up@dawn – Aristotle and Wendell
Today in Environmental Ethics we're receiving more Wendell Berry.
I choose that word deliberately. Wendell's wisdom is a gift, a receipt to treasure. The astute hypothetical
aliens who might ask for more Chuck would do well to ask for another Berry too.
In CoPhi it's time for Aristotle. That serendipitously coincides with the lead-off slot I've been graciously
asked to fill in the Honors Fall Lecture Series.
My CoPhi Section #12 will thus crash their party on the other side of campus at 2:40 this afternoon,
where we'll consider Aristotle on friendship and happiness. I'm likely to bring Wendell into that
conversation as well. I've already noticed some affinity between he and Socrates, now I think I also
detect an Aristotelian strain in the farmer-poet from Port Royal. That does leave Plato the odd man out.
In particular, I notice the echo in Wendell of Aristotle's insistence on creating strong communal lives
wherein individuals have learned to trust and thus mutually support one another. That's the collective
form of friendship, or at least its cousin. Good friends, good neighbors, and good citizens share a great
deal of common ground.

3. Aristotle's great theme, in the broadly-ethical sphere that asks what it means to live a good
human life and thus to flourish and attain happiness, is ευδαιμονια [eudaimonia]. Nigel
Warburton's mnemonic is worth remembering, even if a native Greek speaker might say it
mangles the proper pronunciation: a flourishingly happy human is one who has succeeded in
replacing you die with a virtuous life of αρετη [aretê], and thus has begun really to live. That's
excellent.
Wendell's great theme, bound up with love of one's homeplace and a willingness to work
joyously to sustain it, live from it, and ultimately pass it along to its next generation of
caretakers, is also (I submit) something like Aristotle's version of happiness. Both aim at the
great Graceful Life prize, αταραξια [ataraxia], serenity, tranquility, peace of mind, freedom from
pain and fear.
I've made a few slides, probably too many and still in poor order. But they'll get us talking.
That too is something Wendell shares with the sage of Stagira, an uncommon ability to
provoke constructive conversation. And so the Socratic gadfly from Kentucky is also an
Aristotelian provocateur.

4. Reconstruction of Greek philosopher Aristotle (384-322
BCE) based on his bust.

5. This week Natalie explores
why it's so easy to fall in
love with Aristotle, have fun
with his Nicomachean
ethics and how we know
he had 20:20 vision. It
seems he hated being tutor
to Alexander the Great,
although he did manage to
stay alive in the lethal court
of Philip of Macedon, where
the usual toll of suspicious
deaths was fourteen a
week. But how much did he
really know about elephants
tongues and bivalves on
Lesbos? We love a bit of
gossip from a couple of
thousand years ago.
Aristotle, on BBC 4
All episodes…

6. The series is in part about how the modern world is
more interesting when it's refracted through the prism
of the ancient one. Natalie picks out hilarious details
and universal truths, as well as finding parallels with
modern life, or those parts of life which are still
influenced by ancient thought.
Natalie is a reformed
comedian who is a
little bit obsessive
about Ancient
Greece and Rome.
Each week she takes
a different figure from
the ancient world and
tells their story
through a mix of
stand-up comedy,
extremely well-
informed analysis,
and conversation.

7. So, what is a
true friend?

9. “How to Find Yourself“
“A man with few friends is only half-
developed,” Randolph Bourne
observed. “There are whole sides of
his nature which are locked up and
have never been expressed. He
cannot unlock them himself, he
cannot even discover them; friends
alone can stimulate him and open
them.” David Brooks, NYT, Jy 29,
2022
“Friendships are fragile things,
and require as much handling as
any other fragile and precious
thing.”
And if God exists, I think that he
must be in the warm sun, in the
kindly actions of the people we
know and read of, in the
beautiful things of art and
nature, and in the closeness of
friendships.”

10. Happiness is other people
“Research shows that a lack of social
connection carries with it a risk of
premature death comparable to that of
smoking, and is roughly twice as
dangerous to our health as obesity.
The most significant thing we can do
for our well-being is not to “find
ourselves” or “go within.” It’s to invest
as much time and effort as we can
into nurturing the relationships we
have with the people in our lives.”

11. He solved lots of problems, including
the problem of how best to pursue
pedagogy: peripatetically.
Solvitur ambulando, walking
facilitates talking and thinking…
TW

12. I too am an Epicurean. I consider the genuine (not the imputed) doctrines of
Epicurus as containing everything rational in moral philosophy which Greece and
Rome have left us. Thomas Jefferson
It’s commonly said that Thomas Jefferson got “the pursuit of life, liberty, and” etc.
from John Locke… but his ultimate source was an old Greek philosopher.

14. “The wisdom of Aristotle” …Existential Comics.
A disclaimer: Aristotle (384-322 BCE) was very wise about
some things. Not everything, and certainly not
human/gender equality. But friendship, maybe. He inspired
Epicurus (341-270 BCE)...

15. The noble man is chiefly concerned
with wisdom and friendship; of these,
the former is a mortal good, the latter
an immortal one… Of all the means
which wisdom acquires to ensure
happiness throughout the whole of
life, by far the most inpoirtant is
friendship.”
― Epicurus
The first ingredient [of happiness
(eudaimonia)] was friendship
[alongside freedom and critical
reflection, all indispensable for the
Socratically examined life].'Of all the
things that wisdom provides to help one
live one's entire life in happiness, the
greatest by far is the possession of
friendship,' he wrote. So he bought a
house near Athens where he lived in
the company of congenial souls… Alain
de Botton

16. Aristotle also inspired Stoics like
Seneca, Epictetus, Marcus
Aurelius, and (nowadays)
Pigliucci…
But perhaps “Stoicism does not
encourage the same joie de vivre
[joy in living, flourishing, happiness,
eudaimonia]] as Aristotle’s ethics.”
–Edith Hall

17. “Aristotle argued that
happiness is not
compatible with self-
loathing. People who
cannot respect themselves
and believe in their own
fundamental decency
cannot even like
themselves, let alone other
people.”
― Edith Hall, Aristotle's Way:
How Ancient Wisdom Can
Change Your Life

18. “In Aristotle’s day, and our own, friendship is often reduced to its pleasure or
utility, and there is nothing particularly wrong with friendships of this kind save
that, in Hall’s words, “they are vulnerable to early closure.” These relationships,
Aristotle writes, “are easily broken off. … When the motive of friendship has
passed away, the friendship itself is dissolved.” Ideally, in contrast, he
maintained that lasting connections — intimate, civil and political — are based on
a mutual respect for the virtues each participant holds dear. True friends, true
lovers, true citizens want the best for one another. What is “best”?
Happiness, of course, defined by the pursuit of excellence (arête) or living up to
one’s fullest potential.” John Kaag
In other words,
…“happiness, which means finding a purpose in order to realize your potential
and working on your behavior to become the best version of yourself. You are
your own moral agent, but act in an interconnected world where partnerships
with other people are of great significance.” EH

19. “Happiness is the meaning and
the purpose of life, the whole
aim and end of human
existence.”
― Aristotle
“Those who educate children
well are more to be honored
than they who produce them;
for these only gave them life,
those the art of living well.”
“One swallow does not make a
summer, neither does one fine
day; similarly one day or brief
time of happiness does not
make a person entirely happy.”
“Man is by nature a social animal; an
individual who is unsocial naturally and
not accidentally is either beneath our
notice or more than human. Society is
something that precedes the individual.
Anyone who either cannot lead the
common life or is so self-sufficient as
not to need to, and therefore does not
partake of society, is either a beast or a
god.”

20. The Nicomachean Ethics
by Aristotle
‘One swallow does not make a summer; neither does
one day. Similarly neither can one day, or a brief space
of time, make a man blessed and happy’
In the Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle sets out to
examine the nature of happiness… an ‘activity of
the soul in accordance with virtue’, for example
with moral virtues, such as courage, generosity and
justice, and intellectual virtues, such as knowledge,
wisdom and insight. The Ethics also discusses the
nature of practical reasoning, the value and the
objects of pleasure, the different forms of
friendship, and the relationship between individual
virtue, society and the State. Aristotle’s work has
had a profound and lasting influence on all
subsequent Western thought about ethical matters.
g’r

21. Aristotle
(Greece: Αριστοτέλης)
Aristotle (384–322 B.C.) numbers among the greatest philosophers of all
time. Judged solely in terms of his philosophical influence, only Plato is
his peer: Aristotle's works shaped centuries of philosophy from Late
Antiquity through the Renaissance, and even today continue to be studied
with keen, non-antiquarian interest. A prodigious researcher and writer,
Aristotle left a great body of work, perhaps numbering as many as two-
hundred treatises, from which approximately thirty-one survive. His extant
writings span a wide range of disciplines, from logic, metaphysics and
philosophy of mind, through ethics, political theory, aesthetics and
rhetoric, and into such primarily non-philosophical fields as empirical
biology, where he excelled at detailed plant and animal observation and
taxonomy. In all these areas, Aristotle's theories have provided
illumination, met with resistance, sparked debate, and generally stimulated
the sustained interest of an abiding readership.

22. “Don’t walk in front of me… I may not
follow
Don’t walk behind me… I may not lead
Walk beside me… just be my friend”
― Albert Camus
“Good friends, good books, and a sleepy
conscience: this is the ideal life.”
― Mark Twain
“It is not a lack of love, but a lack of
friendship that makes unhappy
marriages.”
― Friedrich Nietzsche
“There is nothing I would not do for those
who are really my friends. I have no notion
of loving people by halves, it is not my
nature.”
― Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey
“Why did you do all this for me?' he asked.
'I don't deserve it. I've never done
anything for you.' 'You have been my
friend,' replied Charlotte. 'That in itself is
a tremendous thing.”
― E.B. White, Charlotte's Web
“What is a friend? A
single soul dwelling
in two bodies.”
― Aristotle
“Why is it," he said, one time,
at the subway entrance, "I feel
I've known you so many
years?"
"Because I like you," she said,
"and I don't want anything
from you.”
― Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit
451
“The glory of
friendship is not the
outstretched hand, not
the kindly smile, nor
the joy of
companionship; it is
the spiritual
inspiration that comes
to one when you
discover that someone
else believes in you and
is willing to trust you
with a friendship.”
― Ralph Waldo
Emerson
“When I say it's you I like, I'm
talking about that part of you that
knows that life is far more than
anything you can ever see or hear or
touch. That deep part of you that
allows you to stand for those things
without which humankind cannot
survive. Love that conquers hate,
peace that rises triumphant over
war, and justice that proves more
powerful than greed.”
― Fred Rogers
g’r

24. “Without friends, no one would want to live, even if he had all other goods.”
The wise man is his own best friend, and takes delight in privacy whereas the man
of no virtue or ability is his own worst enemy, and is afraid of solitude.”
“What is evil neither can nor should be loved; for it is not one’s duty to be a lover
of evil or to become like what is bad; and we have said that like is dear to like. Must
the friendship, then, be forthwith broken off? Or is this not so in all cases, but only
when one’s friends are incurable in their wickedness? If they are capable of being
reformed one should rather come to the assistance of their character or their
property, inasmuch as this is better and more characteristic of friendship. But a
man who breaks off such a friendship would seem to be doing nothing strange; for
it was not to a man of this sort that he was a friend; when his friend changed,
therefore, and he is unable to save him, he gives him up.”

25. In the philosophy tradition, friendship
is an ethical ideal that influences the
way of life and well-being of the
individual. And more than that:
Aristotle understood friendship as
fundamental in the good society.
Friendship as practice is an idea that is
not often found in philosophical or
psychological text books today.
However, the founder of the suicide
prevention telephone line, Chad
Varah, discovered that it was the
friendship that he offered, rather than
the advice which he gave, that was
helpful in preventing suicides. –
Everybody’s Philosophical
Counselling, TPM

26. Aristotle (Nicomachean Ethics, Book
VIII) distinguishes three kinds of
friendship: friendships of pleasure, of
utility, and of virtue… pleasure, utility,
and virtue are the reasons we have in
these various kinds of relationships for
loving our friend. That is, I may love my
friend because of the pleasure I get out
of her, or because of the ways in which
she is useful to me, or because I find her
to have a virtuous character. Given the
involvement of love in each case, all
three kinds of friendship seem to involve
a concern for your friend for his sake
and not for your own… SEP
(more memes)

27. “I want friends who feel free to disagree with me both
publicly and privately; friends who will admonish me,
gently but firmly, with whatever grain of truth there is
in any accusations against me. I want friends whose
minds are not tethered to my own in bonds of
allegiance, but spin freely of their own accord. I love
my contrarian friends, and the way their thinking
traces wonderful and mysterious paths, following a
logic all their own; and I cherish my conformist
friends, who keep me in touch with the wisdom of
most people. I want friends who ask the right
questions, friends who bring me cookies, friends who
help me up when I stumble, friends who expend so
much attention on the inner me that they have little to
spare for how I am perceived by others. I want friends,
not allies.” Agnes Callard, nyt
@AgnesCallard

28. Should We
Cancel Aristotle?
He defended slavery and opposed
the notion of human equality. But
he is not our enemy.
By Agnes Callard
Nyt… Stone

29. Aristotle lived “at close quarters
with the tyrannical Macedonian
royal family, the ruthless Phillip II
and his scheming wives,
concubines and lieutenants, all
jockeying for position at court,
seems to have meticulously
observed the misery of immoral
people. … These miserable
reprobates, who can’t stand to be
alone with themselves, can’t fully
experience their own joys and
sorrows, as there is a civil war in
their souls.” EH

30. "I post on Facebook a comment on
the benefits of being a cancelee in
this cancel culture (you find out who
your true friends are) that is read and
liked by 494 persons. I like this…
Garrison Keillor @g_keillor TW
having written three sentences, I find
out in a few hours that 494 persons
have friendly feelings toward me. A
gentle rain on the roof. How many
friends does a person need?
Thousands? No, 494 makes me
happy…
I’ve never gone to a shrink,
I just sit down and write,
and this is a gift, along with
the blood thinner and the
anti-seizure meds and the
woman on the porch.”

31. Aristotle pointed out that friendships
of pleasure and utility are easily
formed but also easily abandoned
because such bonds are flimsy. Deep
friendship, by contrast, is when you
care for your friend for her sake, not
for any benefit you can accrue from
the relation. This is selfless
friendship. You can have only a couple
of these friends because they require a
lot of time, work and effort, and a
general blending or intertwining of
two lives. You have to clock time with
these people, and you must make
sacrifices for each other…
In the end there are three possibilities
regarding friendship and digital life. First,
digital life replicates all of the essential
criteria of friendship, so there’s nothing
to worry about. I sincerely doubt that.
Alternatively, digital life fills and absorbs
waking life time so that people do not
engage in paradigm cases of friendship
(like sports, collective arts, free-range
childhoods, etc.). In this way, digital life
contributes to certain kinds of social
isolation. Or last, digital life produces
false friendships (because they are
relatively disembodied). In other words,
young people do not know that they lack
real friends. –Stephen Asma, This
Friendship Has Been Digitized

32. “men cannot know each other till they have ‘eaten salt together’...”

34. Lexington KY (“Wild Health Field”), August 2022… and on the
Kentucky Bourbon Trail

36. Aristotle & Epicurus: Nope.

38. More TED Talks on friendship