A Friend Is Another Self

Discussion of philia to survive from Greek antiquity,Aristotle’s is the most sustained and profound.Aristotle’s theory of philia is both based on the opinions prevailing in ancient Greek society at that time,and draws lessons from the thoughts of poets,philosophers and dramatists before him.In Homeric poems,the concept of companions intimately accompanying has rather a large influence on Aristotle’s theory of philia.In the eighth and ninth books of Nicomachean Ethics,Aristotle commented on Plato’s thoughts of philia in Lysis and criticized the views of platonic love.In addition,Aristotle quoted and changed the lines of many dramatists and lyric poets in the eighth and ninth volumes of Nicomachean Ethics.Therefore,Aristotle’s theory of philia has the most basis.And to study the absorption and criticism of his predecessors’ thoughts of philia is a good way to deeply understand Aristotle’s theory of philia.Aristotle devoted two volumes of his Nicomachean Ethics to an analysis of philia,involving the nature of philia,the types of philia,the differences in meanings of goodwill,love and philia,and connections between justice and philia.Aristotle’s theory of philia is not only broad in content and rigorous in logic,but also rich in meaning.Proposed in the four and nine chapters of the ninth book,"A friend is another self" has particularly generous implications.The sentence reflects the tension between me and the other,in which a friend points to the other while the other is another self.The sentence therefore marks the true philia and it becomes the object of constant quotation and interpretation of later philosophers discussing philia.So,by reviewing the contents of the eighth and ninth books of Nicomachean Ethics and unscrambling the Aristotle’s theory of philia by textual annotations,not only can we comprehensively grasp the main points of Aristotle’s theory of philia,but lay the foundation for observing the influence of Aristotle’s theory of philia on posterity.Aristotle’s thoughts of philia are so influential that later philosophers’ texts on philia often have the shadow of Aristotle’s theory of philia.And the saying "A friend is another self" has been frequently quoted by later philosophers.In the Roman Republic,Cicero quoted it in his essay Of Friendship.In the Roman Empire,Plutarch borrowed the words in his essay On Having Many Friends.In the Renaissance,Montaigne interpreted the meaning of "A friend is another self" by narrating the sincere friendship between him and Etienne La Boetie in his essay on Friendship.The Italian scholar,Giorgio Agamben,has further analyzed the meaning of "A friend is another self" in his essay L’amico.Thus,the effect of Aristotle’s theory of philia is so profound.Therefore,by the four articles above reviewing Nicomachean Ethics,not only can we understand the meaning of "A friend is another self",but we are able to obtain broad horizons across space and time to understand the multi-layer meanings of philia.