Aristotle was one of the greatest thinkers of all time. One reason why he is so great is because his ideas were written over 1,500 years ago, but his thoughts are still relevant today. Aristotle believed that humans are naturally social animals. We have an innate need for companionship. No doubt if you have been in college for more than a week you have already man numerous friends. The main question is how do we know what a true friend is, or what we should be looking for.
According to Aristotle, there are three types of friendship. The first type of friendship is based off of utility. These are the friends that a person makes in their classes. These people become friends in order to help one another out. You could hopefully count on this person to give you their notes if I missed a day of class or needed someone to study with. Once the class is over, the friendship more or less dissolves. Not because that person is disliked, but because the common interest and need for utility is gone.
The second type of friendship is based on pleasure. These friends are the ones that you can go out with and have a good time. The common interest that is shared is having fun. Once the fun goes away—so does the friendship. These first two types of friendships can be important, and can make your life easier and more fun. However, once the common interest that brings these people together is gone, the friendship slowly falls apart.
The third type of friendship is what Aristotle refers to as a virtuous friendship. This friendship allows you to have the perks of the first two types, but also something that is much more. A virtuous friendship is one that has qualities of genuine trust and concern for the well being of the other person involved. A person who is involved in a genuine, virtuous friendship is more than willing to make sacrifices for the other person. Not only are they willing to make sacrifices for that person, but are happy to make sacrifices. They are willing to set aside part of themselves for the happiness of their friends.
These friends are the ones that you can come to with any problem, and they can do the same. They know how you feel, and they know how you think. These friends know when to tell you are wrong, and know when to lie to you to make everything feel better. This type of friendship is rare, but important to the success of a person and a society. We are not just a society of isolated individuals. There is an important network of friends that allows us to cooperate with each other and function smoothly.
The virtuous friendship is something that we are all capable of having. We cannot have a virtuous friendship with anyone and everyone, so the virtuous friendships that we do have must be treasured. People will come in and out of your lives each and every day, but a virtuous friend will always be there for every problem, and every happy time. We should all seek these kinds of relationships whether it is on a romantic level or a best friend. It is important that we share important aspects of our lives with a few special people who will do the same for us.
