Friendship

The renewed interest among philosophers about friendship indicates a break from the suspicion of the last several centuries. The lack of interest can be traced to an understanding of human nature where each individual is a self-contained unit. Ethical reflection emphasized equality so much that friendship appeared hard to justify, as based on preferring one individual over another. This has not always been the case, since Greek and Medieval thinkers regarded friendship rather highly as indicating what is best in human nature and essential to happiness. We will try to understand why different cultural perspectives evaluate friendship in different ways.

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