Benefits Before Buddies or Buddies Before Benefits?
Who doesn’t love going out and hanging out on a Friday night with their buddies? A majority of high schoolers will most likely agree that Friday night is their favorite night to go out and have fun whether it’s going to the movies, bowling, a football game, or just hanging out around a campfire. Aristotle has a great deal to say about friendships in his book Nicomachean Ethics and how to determine if the friendships are genuine, utilitarian or based around pleasures. He argues that it is more beneficial for people to be friends because they care about one another than to be friends based merely on the pleasures or the benefits that are available. Aristotle opens his argument in Book 8 where he states, “Without friends no one would choose to live, even if he possessed all other goods…” (1155a5-6). Aristotle ensures that it’s clear to the reader that having friendships is essential in life like oxygen is for breathing. He stresses the importance ...