Aristotle s Book Viii By Setting Some Ground Work On...

Aristotle begins book VIII by setting some ground work on friendship. Aristotle explains that friendship is something that is â€Å" indispensable for life.† Not one person chooses to not have friends, therefore, it something that involves everyone. He later goes in depth on the fact that there are three categories of friendship: useful, pleasure, and goodness. Useful friendship is when each individual has a benefit from the other. In the case of pleasure friendship, each person in the relationship are drawn to the others personality or physical attributes. According to the text, many younger individuals seem to have a pleasure type friendship. As each individual grows older, the friends leave quickly just like they came in. When I look back at†¦show more content†¦However, the third and final type of friendship may last a much longer duration of time. â€Å"Good† people tend to focus on whats best for their friend rather than themselves, and â€Å"bad† people tend to focus on what benefits themselves, and an activity that they can involve themselves in. Aristotle then concludes thats the highest form of friendship is that between the good men. Furthermore, within these three categories, utility, pleasure, and goodness, there exist relationships between people on an unequal status, for example: father-son relationships or husband-wife relationships. Both partners do not receive the same thing from each other. For example, a father would not expect the same thing from a child compared to what he gives to his child. I personally do not see a child providing financial support or housing for his family. This relationship is therefore unequal, but the affection between each is expected to be equal. I found this to be very accurate. There is no possible way I could give back everything my mother has done or given to me, but the love I show to my mother is something she accepts in return. Therefore, making the relationship equitable. Aris totle also compares the father-son and husband-wife friendships to political systems. A kingship, or monarchy, is comparative to the father-son relationship, and aristocracy is comparative to the husband-wife relationship. It seems he compares these two because, in a way,