Clipping #67: Friendship

Zat Rana reminds us of what the ancient Greek Philosopher, Aristotle, had to say about friendships. The philosopher thought that the best kinds of friendship contributed to a more ethical society.

Aristotle described friendships of utility as those in which each party receives a benefit in exchange and when the benefit is over, so does the relationship. These are often friendships typical in a business or work relationship. A second kind of friendship is based on pleasure. This is one often found among school friends or mutual sports team members. It tends to end when tastes or preferences change.

Aristotle described a third relationship based on a mutual appreciation of the virtues/values held by the parties. These relationships are most often based on a level of goodness in each person. These take time and trust to build, depend on mutual growth occurring and they automatically include the rewards of the utility kinds of friendship.

Rana reports that Aristotle applauded friendships with transformational qualities including the joy of the relationships based on mutual appreciation of character and goodness rather than on transactional values. To Aristotle, few things came close to the value of such a relationships.

· Are most of your friends transactional or transformational as defined above?

· How many of your friendships are in Aristotle’s third kind?

· Are those kinds of friends worth the investment required? Why?

· What implications do you see of the kinds of friendship in our society today?

· What in our society today seems to encourage transformational friendships?

I invite you to visit the website MyPathToGod.org to journey along a new and engaging pathway for spiritual discovery.

Irving Stubbs — www.mypathtogod.org