%0 Journal Article
%T An Interpretation of Aristotle’s Thought on Friendship: Based on a Textual Analysis of Books VIII and IX of Nicomachean Ethics
%A Huiling Bian
%J Open Journal of Social Sciences
%P 261-272
%@ 2327-5960
%D 2025
%I Scientific Research Publishing
%R 10.4236/jss.2025.132017
%X Aristotle believed that friendship is not only a certain virtue but also the most essential thing in life. There are mainly three different types of friendship: friendship based on goodness, friendship based on pleasure, and friendship based on utility. Friendship is characterized by reciprocity, similarity, and the need for shared living. Friendship is the bond that connects the city-state and is an important condition for the transition from individual virtue to public virtue. Aristotle’s thought on friendship is a relationship that regulates interpersonal communication with action as its characteristic, a rational emotion accompanied by choice and deliberation, a unity of ethical virtue and practical wisdom. We should carry forward Aristotle’s thought on friendship, and promote personal happiness, interpersonal harmony, and social harmony through friendship.
%K Friendship
%K Aristotle
%K Nicomachean Ethics
%U http://www.scirp.org/journal/PaperInformation.aspx?PaperID=140759