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3 ideas
| 87 | Democracy is the best constitution for friendship, because it encourages equality [Aristotle] |
| Full Idea: Friendships are most commonly found in democracies, because the citizens, being equal, have much in common. | |
| From: Aristotle (Nicomachean Ethics [c.334 BCE], 1161b09) | |
| A reaction: He also implies that friendship promotes democracy, presumably because friends prefer to be equals. |
| 5260 | Friendship holds communities together, and lawgivers value it more than justice [Aristotle] |
| Full Idea: Friendship seems to be the bond that holds communities together, and lawgivers seem to attach more importance to it than to justice. | |
| From: Aristotle (Nicomachean Ethics [c.334 BCE], 1155a23) | |
| A reaction: An interesting aspect of the Aristotelian view of society which we now call 'communitarian'. Even lawgivers should be concerned with friendship (how?). There is 'such a thing as society', because friendship networks overlap. |
| 5264 | Friendship is based on a community of sharing [Aristotle] |
| Full Idea: The proverb 'friends have all things is common' is quite right, because friendship is based on community. | |
| From: Aristotle (Nicomachean Ethics [c.334 BCE], 1159b30) | |
| A reaction: Thus communism is a kind of sentimental dream that everybody will be friends. The aspiration of all good people should be to spread the boundaries of the networks of friends to be ever more inclusive. This is the new left-wing of politics. |