Friendship is undoubtedly the most relevant philosophical question exposed in the Nicomachean Ethics. While other virtues may not be practiced on a daily basis, friendship and the implications of such a relationship are somewhat more consistent. Life requires interactions and relationships with other people, and Aristotle's view on friendship offers insights that can be incorporated into everyday life. Aristotle uses his discussion of friendship and its relation to justice to create a foundation for his argument about the function of politics, the “science of human good,” in society (Aristotle, I, 2, 3). In light of his philosophical analysis of friendship and justice, Aristotle would support a government with a philosopher king at the head of the polis - as Plato presents - although Aristotle's political system would focus more on the individual promotion of virtue than on the creation of a perfect political system . society. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay The virtue of true friendship, as Aristotle defines it, concerns the reciprocal relationship between two good people who have good will towards each other out of love for others (VIII, 2, 144). Although Aristotle's definition seems intuitive, a relationship must meet many requirements to be considered a true friendship. Mainly, friendship must be virtuous. Virtue, specifically moral virtue, is a "state of character which concerns choice... this being determined by reason, and by that reason with which a man of practical wisdom would determine it" (II, 6, 31). People perform virtuous actions for the sake of the action, aiming for happiness – the “final and self-sufficient end… of the action” – and not using them as a means to obtain something else (I, 7, 10). Virtue also predisposes the individual to perform virtuous actions "at the right time, with respect to the right objects, towards the right people, with the right motive and in the right way" (II, 6, 30). Friendship, which is based on mutual love, is a virtue because "mutual love implies choice and choice arises from a state of character" (VIII, 5, 148). Therefore, if a man considers himself a friend of another, then that man must make a conscious decision to participate in friendship activities towards the other person. Friendship, therefore, cultivates the actions of true friendship in the desire to realize the human telos, or ultimate goal of human life. For this reason, friendships of utility and pleasure are not virtuous and quickly dissolve, because they exist so that each party can gain something from the other. True friendship, however, stands the test of time as long as friends interact regularly. In the case of friendship, both parties love each other unconditionally, constantly, equally and for the good of the other. The differences between friendship and other traditional virtues can be seen clearly when considering friendship and temperance. Temperance is the mean between self-indulgence and insensitivity, the character states of excess and deficit, while true friendship is in a certain sense the extreme (III, 10, 55). True friendship is not positioned on a continuum, but includes the lower types of friendship, that of utility and pleasure. For this reason, true friendship is pleasant and useful, but these complementary qualities are not the foundation of the relationship (VIII, 4, 147). The virtue of temperance, however, is neither self-indulgent nor callous, because these vices are opposite states of character. Furthermore, temperance does not require interaction with others, while friendship presupposes social interaction. A person can be considered temperate if he worksabout the state of character within oneself, but a person cannot establish friendship alone. It seems that friendship, then, more closely resembles the virtue of justice than any other virtue.of the other virtues in form and function. Both friendship and justice require a social context. There can be no friendship or justice with just one person. Furthermore, neither justice nor friendship can be shown towards an unsuspecting object or person; there must be a mutual recognition of justice or friendship between the people involved, otherwise the virtue displayed is simply goodwill. Friendship, like justice, is a virtue for the virtuous, because it requires individuals to have the virtue within themselves before they can apply it in relation to others. But friendship, by definition, includes justice, "the concrete exercise of full virtue" (V, 1, 81). True friends, loving each other unconditionally for the good of the other, "have no need of justice... and the truest form of justice is believed to be a friendly quality" (VIII, 1, 142). For this reason, the legislator aims to build friendships within the polis, because when friendship is established, justice undoubtedly accompanies it. Justice refers directly to friendship, and the two virtues "have an equal extension" (VIII, 9, 153). The more true the friendship, the more justice is expected from the relationship. Therefore, governments strive to foster the truest friendships to maintain justice to the fullest extent. Friendships exist between father and son, husband and wife, or brother and brother, but the manifestation of friendships and the actions performed by each couple differ depending on the nature of the relationship. In the same way that different friendship relationships are formed, different constitutions of effective government are also formed. Effective government appropriates justice "in every case according to merit, since this also applies to friendship" (VIII, 11, 156). Of actual governments, there are three constitutions: monarchy, aristocracy, and timocracy, each reflecting one of the friendly relations. Monarchy is the type of government in which a king rules over his subjects. This king "is self-sufficient and excels his subjects in every good", making him virtuous (VIII, 10, 154). His virtue and independence allow him to fully care for the interests of his subjects, and because of his virtue, the subjects trust and honor him completely. Monarchy is related to the friendship between father and son, in which the father is "responsible for the existence of his children... for their nutrition and education" (VIII, 11, 155). Through monarchy, citizens grow in virtue and wisdom at the king's direction, and the king in turn receives honor and glory from his subjects. The perversion of this constitution is tyranny, in which the tyrant rules over his subjects based on his own interests, and reflects the relationship between master and slave. In this relationship “there is nothing common between the two parties; the slave is a living instrument", and friendship - as well as justice - must be mutually recognized (VIII, 11, 156). In a tyrannical political system, as in the master-slave relationship, there is neither justice nor friendship, because one cannot be friends with an instrument. For this reason, Aristotle considers tyranny "the worst form of deviation" and monarchy - as the opposite of tyranny - the best constitution (VIII, 10, 154). In an aristocracy, a group of qualified nobility rules “according to worth.” The aristocratic form of government is very similar to the relationship between husband and wife, because the husband governs «in the things in which the man should govern, but puts them in the things that suit the woman» (VIII, 10, 155). In this way the aristocracy shares power with the general public, each of whom collaborates in thesuccess of the polis. Aristocracy degrades to oligarchy when wealth and power, instead of virtue, determine the law. People undeserving of authority are exalted, which leads to the destruction of a functioning political system. For this reason, the amount of justice found in an oligarchy is reduced, just as the pure friendship between husband and wife can be reduced to a friendship of utility. A timocratic government is the political form in which the owners govern “in turn and on equal terms.” Equality and fairness determine the laws of this type of government, which derive from the fact that the rulers are "similar in their feelings and in their character" (VIII, 11, 156). Timocracy reflects the friendship found between brothers, since "two things that contribute greatly to friendship are common education and similarity of age", which help brothers develop similar beliefs and values ​​(VIII, 12, 157). The distortion of timocracy is democracy, in which everyone has an equal share of the ruling power. Although legislation is not always based on virtue, democratic government is the least distorted version of friendship and justice, because “where citizens are equal they have much in common” (VIII, 11, 156). Considering these forms of government and the corresponding forms of friendship, Aristotle would consider the philosopher king as the ideal head of government. In the Republic, Plato explains what he sees as the purest and most effective form of government: a monarchy with a philosopher king – constantly seeking truth and full of virtue and phronesis, or practical wisdom – who determines the laws and gives them to guardians . implement and enforce (Plato, V, 473d, 153) . In Plato's regime the guardians are stripped of their individualism in order to serve the city more fully (VIII, 543a-c, 221). All citizens, except the philosopher king, would grow up believing in the noble lie, a lie intended to direct people towards virtuous action (III, 414a-415a, 94). For this type of government to begin, children would be taken from their parents, raised with a curriculum aimed at promoting wisdom and virtue, and with the children a new city would be founded (VII, 541a, 220). Although Aristotle – from his discussions of justice and friendship – agrees with the philosopher king as monarch, he would have a very different approach to the foundation of such a political system. Aristotle believes that monarchy establishes the truest form of justice, because it is parallel to “the friendship of children with parents and of men with the gods”. The God-man relationship represents true father-son friendship, because the gods "are the cause of their being and their nourishment and their education from birth" (Aristotle, VIII, 12, 158). The friendship between gods and men is the purest form of friendship, because the gods are "blessed and happy above all" (X, 8, 197). Since the gods exemplify happiness, they are also the most virtuous and contemplative. Fittingly, the king would be a philosopher, a man whose life is also oriented towards the contemplative and virtuous. The king, who has the greatest sense of virtue and justice, helps his subjects grow in virtue starting from the foundation of the city. The subjects, based on their love and respect for the king, abide by his laws, which serve to encourage virtuous action and discourage vice. Since virtue develops from habitual action, laws will eventually make the city's citizens virtuous. Aristotle does not believe that a noble lie or a clean slate is necessary to create a virtuous city and, in fact, he may consider it harmful to the end. -objective. In Plato's system, the general public would have no true sense of virtue but would simply follow established laws (Plato, V, 474c, 154). Although this would help the public.