On Friendship And Self-Love In Aristotle’s Theory Of Friendship

Friendship is an important theme in Aristotle’s ethics,and one of its core issues is to explore the relationship between friendship and self-love.However,when discussing friendship in Nicomachean Ethics,Aristotle seemed to show a different position on the relationship between friendship and self-love.On the one hand,friendship is necessary even noble to human life,and to love a friend for his own sake.But on the other hand,since friendship arises from a person’s self-concern,so self-love is likely more important.This difference has led to different views among scholars on Aristotle’s theory of friendship,that is whether it is self-centered or friend-centered,and then developed into a debate on the nature of his ethics.In view of this debate,by analyzing the textual conflicts between friendship and self-love,and some possible problems in the interpretations of self-directed and other-directed,it can be found that Aristotle’s holistic understanding of eudaimonia and his investigation of the relationship between virtue and eudaimonia is helpful for responding to the tension between friendship and self-love.