Page - 1887 - in The Complete Aristotle
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13
There are three kinds of friendship, as we said at the outset of our inquiry,
and in respect of each some are friends on an equality and others by virtue of
a superiority (for not only can equally good men become friends but a better
man can make friends with a worse, and similarly in friendships of pleasure
or utility the friends may be equal or unequal in the benefits they confer). This
being so, equals must effect the required equalization on a basis of equality in
love and in all other respects, while unequals must render what is in
proportion to their superiority or inferiority. Complaints and reproaches arise
either only or chiefly in the friendship of utility, and this is only to be
expected. For those who are friends on the ground of virtue are anxious to do
well by each other (since that is a mark of virtue and of friendship), and
between men who are emulating each other in this there cannot be complaints
or quarrels; no one is offended by a man who loves him and does well by
him-if he is a person of nice feeling he takes his revenge by doing well by the
other. And the man who excels the other in the services he renders will not
complain of his friend, since he gets what he aims at; for each man desires
what is good. Nor do complaints arise much even in friendships of pleasure;
for both get at the same time what they desire, if they enjoy spending their
time together; and even a man who complained of another for not affording
him pleasure would seem ridiculous, since it is in his power not to spend his
days with him.
But the friendship of utility is full of complaints; for as they use each other
for their own interests they always want to get the better of the bargain, and
think they have got less than they should, and blame their partners because
they do not get all they ‘want and deserve’; and those who do well by others
cannot help them as much as those whom they benefit want.
Now it seems that, as justice is of two kinds, one unwritten and the other
legal, one kind of friendship of utility is moral and the other legal. And so
complaints arise most of all when men do not dissolve the relation in the spirit
of the same type of friendship in which they contracted it. The legal type is
that which is on fixed terms; its purely commercial variety is on the basis of
immediate payment, while the more liberal variety allows time but stipulates
for a definite quid pro quo. In this variety the debt is clear and not ambiguous,
but in the postponement it contains an element of friendliness; and so some
states do not allow suits arising out of such agreements, but think men who
have bargained on a basis of credit ought to accept the consequences. The
moral type is not on fixed terms; it makes a gift, or does whatever it does, as
to a friend; but one expects to receive as much or more, as having not given
but lent; and if a man is worse off when the relation is dissolved than he was
1887
back to the
book The Complete Aristotle"
The Complete Aristotle
- Title
- The Complete Aristotle
- Author
- Aristotle
- Date
- ~322 B.C.
- Language
- English
- License
- PD
- Size
- 21.0 x 29.7 cm
- Pages
- 2328
- Keywords
- Philosophy, Antique, Philosophie, Antike, Dialogues, Metaphysik, Metaphysics, Ideologie, Ideology, Englisch
- Categories
- Geisteswissenschaften
- International
Table of contents
- Part 1; Logic (Organon) 3
- Categories 4
- On Interpretation 34
- Prior Analytics, Book I 56
- Prior Analytics, Book II 113
- Posterior Analytics, Book I 149
- Posterior Analytics, Book II 193
- Topics, Book I 218
- Topics, Book II 221
- Topics, Book III 237
- Topics, Book IV 248
- Topics, Book V 266
- Topics, Book VI 291
- Topics, Book VII 317
- Topics, Book VIII 326
- On Sophistical Refutations 348
- Part 2; Universal Physics 396
- Physics, Book I 397
- Physics, Book II 415
- Physics, Book III 432
- Physics, Book IV 449
- Physics, Book V 481
- Physics, Book VI 496
- Physics, Book VII 519
- Physics, Book VIII 533
- On the Heavens, Book I 570
- On the Heavens, Book II 599
- On the Heavens, Book III 624
- On the Heavens, Book IV 640
- On Generation and Corruption, Book I 651
- On Generation and Corruption, Book II 685
- Meteorology, Book I 707
- Meteorology, Book II 733
- Meteorology, Book III 760
- Meteorology, Book IV 773
- Part 3; Human Physics 795
- On the Soul, Book I 796
- On the Soul, Book II 815
- On the Soul, Book III 840
- On Sense and the Sensible 861
- On Memory and Reminiscence 889
- On Sleep and Sleeplessness 899
- On Dreams 909
- On Prophesying by Dreams 918
- On Longevity and the Shortness of Life 923
- On Youth, Old Age, Life and Death, and Respiration 929
- Part 4; Animal Physics 952
- The History of Animals, Book I 953
- The History of Animals, Book II translated 977
- The History of Animals, Book III 1000
- The History of Animals, Book IV 1029
- The History of Animals, Book V 1056
- The History of Animals, Book VI 1094
- The History of Animals, Book VII 1135
- The History of Animals, Book VIII 1150
- The History of Animals, Book IX 1186
- On the Parts of Animals, Book I 1234
- On the Parts of Animals, Book II 1249
- On the Parts of Animals, Book III 1281
- On the Parts of Animals, Book IV 1311
- On the Motion of Animals 1351
- On the Gait of Animals 1363
- On the Generation of Animals, Book I 1381
- On the Generation of Animals, Book II 1412
- On the Generation of Animals, Book III 1444
- On the Generation of Animals, Book IV 1469
- On the Generation of Animals, Book V 1496
- Part 5; Metaphysics 1516
- Part 6; Ethics and Politics 1748
- Nicomachean Ethics, Book I 1749
- Nicomachean Ethics, Book II 1766
- Nicomachean Ethics, Book III 1779
- Nicomachean Ethics, Book IV 1799
- Nicomachean Ethics, Book V 1817
- Nicomachean Ethics, Book VI 1836
- Nicomachean Ethics, Book VII 1851
- Nicomachean Ethics, Book VIII 1872
- Nicomachean Ethics, Book IX 1890
- Nicomachean Ethics, Book X 1907
- Politics, Book I 1925
- Politics, Book II 1943
- Politics, Book III 1970
- Politics, Book IV 1997
- Politics, Book V 2023
- Politics, Book VI 2053
- Politics, Book VII 2065
- Politics, Book VIII 2091
- The Athenian Constitution 2102
- Part 7; Aesthetic Writings 2156