Aristotle considers ethical theory as a field different from the theoretical sciences. Friendship is of profound importance for human life as well as of pronounced significance for the moral life. The reason behind why we study ethics is to improve our lives and the principal concern the kind of human well-being. Aristotle follows Plato and Socrates in taking the qualities to be a central of a well-lived life. Aristotle began by introducing the notion that helps to understand the phenomenon of friendship. He begins by defining a friend as a person who likes or loves another individual for the sake of that other person’s goodwill. Aristotle states that in friendship there should be equality in order to have friendship of the good. The objective of this paper is to examine the intention and to present information that supports the thesis that friendship relations have positive significances implications for social development in real life situations. Also, the paper will examine whether there is friendship between wicked individual or can friendship arise between and two individuals (Aristotle & Ross pg.128). Friendship is a virtue or in other terms it implies virtues. The connection between the community, friendship, and the individual explains why the paper finds a discussion of our real life situations in the middle of Book VII (Aristotle & Ross pg.67).
According to Aristotle, in order to comprehend about well-being, there is a need to know and understand the three bad states of a person. These include the vice, brutishness and the incontinence. For an individual to be companionable, the following states must be in them, virtue, superhuman virtue and continence which are praiseworthy. Incontinent is a character that makes someone to lack control and self-restraint (Aristotle & Ross pg.127). In Aristotle's book 7, he proposes four solutions to these three bad states of character. First, there is the importance for an individual to understand what is wrong which will help them to reflect upon their knowledge. Therefore, they cannot be in a position of doing wrong without thinking. This will help them to live and understand the other personalities in the society. Additionally, the incontinent individual may make a false implication when using the practical syllogism due to ignorance of the facts. Third, Aristotle proposed that the incontinent individual may be mentally disturbed or emotionally excited, and these can result in difficulty when thinking clearly. In his last point, he proposed that incontinent individual’s desire may cause them to act hastily without control, careful reasoning or self-restraint.
According to Socrates no one does wrong knowingly, in his point of view wrong doing is as a resultant of ignorance of that person. The key essential of moral education is to ensure that every person knows what is good as well as why good is so that no one will be disposed of to the types of ignorance that result in doing wrong. Aristotle seconded Socrates’ thesis, but he discovers that the thesis calls for some detailed elaboration. If everyone could be like Aristotle, conflicts between ourselves could be minimal since we could be having bad behaviors in our day to day lives. He identifies three major sources of wrongdoing that result to conflicts between us. The three bad states are incontinence, vice, and brutishness (Aristotle & Ross pg.105). He states that the vice is the opposite of virtue. Virtue is a character that develops when an individual is at young age due to practice and habit. Also like virtue, vice is a temperament to behave in a certain way. An individual with the virtue of temperance is willing to behave moderately and will think of abstinence as the correct form of behavior. This will create a favorable environment of friendship in the society. Contrary, an individual with vice of recklessness is ousted to behave recklessly. This will result in him doing and thinking of this recklessness as the correct form of behavior. He concluded that the vice is the worst of the bad states in an individual this is because an individual who acts out of the vice performs deliberately and voluntarily.
The incontinent individual varies from others this is because he knows what is good but eventually does wrong (Aristotle & Ross pg.106). An incontinent individual might have the virtue of abstinence and know that immoral behavior is irresponsible. Nevertheless, he still lacks the self-control to resist immoral behavior. Aristotle concluded that the incontinence is not as such bad as vice, subsequently vice is a form of weakness than actual moral badness. The third bad state is brutishness that is the act of the extreme form of irrational wrong doing. A brute individual lacks the ability for rational thought completely. Therefore, he has no sense of doing right or wrong.
In conclusion, according to Aristotle friendship is affected by age. Young men become friends quickly than old men do. The type of friendship is defined by the object of love between two individuals. There are three types of friendships, love friendship that is based on pleasure, friendship based on utility and lastly friendship based on goodness (Aristotle & Ross pg.129). Aristotle describes friendship as the act of loving rather than the act of being loved. Meanwhile, in our real lives will believe in being loved. It is important that the friendship to be active since Aristotle treats the friendship as an energeia, which is similar to happiness and pleasure (Aristotle & Ross pg.131). Friendship is one of the necessary virtues of a good life. He concluded by saying the value of friendship is in enjoying and having it.
Works Cited
Aristotle, and W D. Ross. The Nicomachean Ethics. Kitchener: Batoche Books, 1999. Print.
Aristotle, W D. Ross, J L. Ackrill, and J O. Urmson. The Nicomachean Ethics. Oxford (Oxfordshire: Oxford UP, 1998. Print.
Pakaluk, Michael. Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics: An Introduction. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2005. Print.
Ross, W. D. "The Internet Classics Archive | Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle." The Internet Classics Archive: 441 searchable works of classical literature. N.p., 11 Nov. 2014. Web. 11 Nov. 2014. <http://classics.mit.edu/Aristotle/nicomachaen.7.vii.html>.
Sparshott, Francis E. Taking Life Seriously: A Study of the Argument of the Nicomachean Ethics. Toronto: U of Toronto P, 1994. Print.
