Study Questions for Aristotle's
Nicomachean Ethics Book VIII-IX (part)

Instructor: Dr. Jan Garrett

Last revised date: August 1, 2007

Study Questions for use with T. H. Irwin's translation (Hackett, 1999). This version prepared in July 2007.

Book VIII: Friendship (Partial)

Popular Views and Puzzles

1. What popular views concerning friendship (philia) does Aristotle cite? (Summarize 1155a1-32 in your own words.)

2. What puzzle about friendship is mentioned at 1155a34-b7? Note the other puzzles mentioned at b11-15.

Note: In Book VIII, the English words containing the root "lov-" generally correspond to Greek words containing the root "phil-," that is, they are linguistic relatives of the Greek word for friendship.

Defining Friendship

3. What sorts of things are lovable? lovable as ends? (1155b18-21) What does every person love? (b25-27)

4. On Aristotle's account, can a person be a friend of his or her car? (1155b28-31) If A wishes good things for B, but B does not wish good things for A, is their relation friendship? Explain. (1155b32-34)

5. If Guinevere loves Lancelot, and Lancelot loves Guinevere, does it follow that they are friends? Explain. (1155b34-1156a6) Note Aristotle's general definition of friendship at 1156a4-6.

Friendship Between Equals

6. Of what three "species" or kinds of friendship is Aristotle speaking at 1156a7? Give examples of the first two. (a22-b6)

7. Why does Aristotle say that two of the types are coincidental? (1156a11-18) Why are they easily dissolved? (a18-22)

8. What age groups are associated with each type of coincidental friendship? (1156a22-b6)

The section on complete friendship uses the terms "good without qualification" and "pleasant without qualification." Aristotle assumes that there is a privileged point of view, say, that of the wise and virtuous person: what is F without qualification is F from the wise person's point of view. A thing may be F from the perspective of an unwise or nonvirtuous person, though it is not F without qualification, or not F from the perspective of an unwise or nonvirtuous person, though it is F without qualification. (You can often substitute "really" for the phrase "without qualification" and come close to Aristotle's sense, as long as you don't reduce what is F with qualification to a mere illusion: it does really appear F from some perspective or other.)

9. What sorts of people are the friends in a complete (teleia) friendship? (1156b7-8) Why is such a friendship (relatively) enduring? (b11-12) How does this type of friendship include features of the other types? (b13 17)

10. Give three reasons why these friendships are rare? (1156b25-33)

11. In Plato's Lysis, Socrates and his young friends discuss but do not resolve the question whether attraction between similar or between dissimilar people lies at the core of friendship. With which side does Aristotle primarily agree? (1156b34-1157a14)

1157a15-16: Perhaps "they were never friends of each other" means "they never loved what was an essential part of the other person, the way a person's character is."

12a. Does Aristotle hold that coincidental friends are not really friends at all? (1157a26-36; see also def. at 1156a4-6 and Aristotle's explanation of some popular views at 1158b9-12.)

12b. What type is friendship in the primary sense? What type(s) friendship by similarity? friendship without qualification? (1157a31-b5)

13. Can friendship exist for a time without friendly activities? On what basis does A classify friendship as a state (hexis)? (1157b6-14) Is loving a feeling (pathos) or a state? How does it differ from friendship? Explain. (1157b29-33)

14. Under what circumstance do concern for the other person and self-interest seem to coincide? (1157b33-37)

15. Can one be a complete friend to several people? Why does Aristotle say that this type of friendship is like an excess? (1158a11-14)

16. Of the coincidental types, which friendship is more like complete friendship? Explain. (1158a18-26)

Friendship Between Unequals

17. How do the types of friendship now considered (1158b12ff) differ from all the types discussed so far? What differences does Aristotle mention? (b18-23)

18. What does Aristotle mean when he says "the loving must be proportional"? (1158b24-29)

19. What do you think of Aristotle's solution to the puzzle he mentions at 1159a7-9? State the puzzle and solution first in your own words.

20. Why do "the many" prefer being loved to loving? (1159a15-26)

21. What seems to be the virtue of friends, if any one thing is? (1159a27-34) Does Aristotle choose a good example to support his case?

22. What type of friendship seems to arise most from contraries? Why? (1159b13-24) Aristotle doesn't seem to think that this overthrows his view that similarity rather than dissimilarity is the ultimate glue of friendship; why not?

Book IX, chapter 9: Friendship and Happiness

19. On what grounds does Aristotle claim that friends are needed for happiness? (1169b7-23; other reasons are given in what follows) 1170b10-14 summarizes the section that begins here.

20. Why does the activity of good persons' friends bring them pleasure? (1169b29-1170a3) How does friendship make our activity more continuous? How does it make the life of a good person more pleasant? (1170a4-11)

21. How does friendship enable a person to realize his or her being in a way that goes beyond our biological individuality? (1170a12-b10)

22. Why is conversation important for friends? (1170b8-14)