On Aristorelian Theory Of Political Priendship

Political friendship plays an important role in Aristotle's practical philosophy, because it not only involves the happiness of individual citizens, but also has an influence on the prosperity of state. In the current Aristotelian circles, however, there are many debates on the political friendship with respect to its specific type, its basic quality, its possible value in modern society, and so on. By Way of literature reading, coherent thinking and comparative investigation, I try to reconstruct the basic logic of thinking about political friendship in Aristotle, deal with the evident tension in his thought and some important and relevant debates producing by the tension, and then inspect and reflect on the challenges and opportunities with which Aristotle's view is confronted in the contemporary context. Specifically, this study mainly consists of three sections:First, for a relatively broad and necessary context, I make efforts to examine the status that political friendship has in Aristotle's philosophy. This examination includes Aristotelian concept of happiness, the importance of political life for the realization of happiness, the basic relations between political friendship and justice which of both consolidate the political life in city-state altogether.Secondly, on the basis of showing three types of individual friendship, I inquire into the type and quality of political friendship. Of course, this kind of inquiry is exerted by dual ways. On the one hand, I examine and sort some representative positions on these questions, on the other hand, I attempt to make further reading and thus to reconstruct the fundamental process and main ideas in Aristotle's thought.Thirdly, with regard to contemporary changes and new problems in political and philosophical context, I try to explore the location and the updated forms of Aristotelian political friendship in our time.As a conclusion, the core view in my study is that, Aristotelian political friendship belongs to the weak virtuous friendship in its quality and to moderate egoism with regard to the type, and this kind of political friendship will still play an important role on the realization of happiness for contemporary human beings whose political and philosophical contexts have changed greatly.