Philosophy and Friendship / / Sandra Lynch.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Edinburgh University Press Backlist eBook-Package 2013-2000
• VerfasserIn: Lynch, Sandra,
• Place / Publishing House: Edinburgh : : Edinburgh University Press, , [2022]; ©2005
• Year of Publication: 2022
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (224 p.)

GBS_insertPreviewButtonPopup('ISBN:9780748617272);A philosophical exploration of the meaning and significance of friendship.This book explains the persistence of friendship today in the light of the history of philosophical approaches to the subject. It considers ideals of intimacy and fusion in the context of claims that such ideals are unrealistic and even dangerous. Cicero's scepticism about friendship in the public realm is compared with the Aristotelian view of friendship as a genuine political bond, and with Derrida's development of that view via an exploration of Aristotle's alleged and provocative announcement 'O my friends, there is no friend'. Tensions between love and respect, identity and difference, a focus on the self and a focus on the other are closely examined.From Aristotle to contemporary theorists, the book explores the conditions that enable the development of self-understanding in friendship, the delicate and unstable pairing of concepts like inclination and duty and distinctions between self-love, self esteem and self-concern in relations between friends.Key FeaturesRecognition of the variety of the term 'friend' in the history of philosophyThe treatment of the tension between identity and difference in relations between friendsDiscussion of the contribution of friendship to self-understanding."

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgements -- Preface -- PART I. Identity and Difference in Philosophical Conceptions of Friendship -- 1. Approaching the Kaleidoscope of Friendship -- 2. The Friend as Another Self -- 3. The Other Self as Friend -- PART II. Friendship as an Ethical Relationship -- 4. Re-imagining the Possibility of Friendship -- PART III. The Relationship between Friendship and Self-Understanding -- 5. Seeing Oneself as Friend -- 6. Friendship in Contemporary Life -- Bibliography -- Index