Aristotle’s Highest Friendship: A Modern Reality

Aristotle’s Highest Friendship: A Modern Reality

 

Running Head: ARISTOTLE’S HIGHEST FRIENDSHIP: A MODERN REALITY 1

ARISTOTLE’S HIGHEST FRIENDSHIP: A MODERN REALITY 2

Aristotle’s Highest Friendship: A Modern Reality

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Aristotle’s Highest Friendship: A Modern Reality

According to Aristotle’s Rhetoric, people are more likely to accept opinions from someone they considered being friendly rather than someone being hostile (Risseeuw, 2017). He defines friends as people “who have come to regard the same things as good and the same things as evil”. That means real friends always have similar worldviews and attitudes towards things, and friends are easier persuading each other. What Aristotle thinks of friendship is slightly different from what we are considering today. Dating back to times when Aristotle lived, community and righteousness are things that matter. Since nowadays people think of this question more often from the perspective of joy and companionship, good and evil could be something worthy to be valued now.

Every phase is wonderful and as colorful as it could be. My blonde phase is also what my friends would teasingly label as Alia looking for changes she is not really sure if she wants it. In this respect, the highest level of friendship is not easily attainable in the world of today. Regardless, every year I would go to a salon and get my hair properly done by a stylist to be a blonde for at least two months. In these months, I would break away from my normal social circle. I shed my usual behavior like how a snake sheds its skin; adopts a 360 personality in matter of days. Then, I will go out and get myself a different crowd to hang out with. If this crowd eventually become my people, my blonde hair gradually changes while I’m still hanging out with them – blonde to reddish-brown before it goes back to raven black. If I failed to fit into the crowd, I would have my blonde hair for a bit longer before finally dyeing it back to black without any transition in between. Usually right after I pull the trigger to end things. That is how I feel about friendship; it has to go through transitions and phases before it becomes a long-standing friendship. If I dye my hair without transition, that means I said goodbye abruptly. I dye my hair back to black without notifying them. If it goes through transition that means the new found friends would get to see me with all my masks on. Friendship shouldn’t be forced – but there are friendship(s) you have to quit (Burger, 2019). The friendship you have to quit is the ones you don’t need to waste your time trying to assimilate into your life – vice versa. My blonde hair serves as a mating call – come talk to me about it. The transition serves as a way for new-found friends to get used to all of my phases and character(s). While the failed one can just skip everything altogether and be merry on their way without gaining the knowledge of my other sides. Perhaps, I am a poor judge of character as this year I dyed my hair black without transition in between. But friendship when it’s forced – is the last thing anyone should ever have to face. Friendship should be organic – nobody should be playing God in this matter

One of the points I have always observed is that friendship is sometimes either the first or the ultimate stage of our relationship with someone. What I mean to say is, we often start a relationship with a stranger as a friend, which gradually changes into other relationships as the bond gets stronger with time. On the other hand, our already existing relations sometimes becomes so strong that we start believing that we have a friendship kind of relation with them like its often heard people saying “My mother is the most wonderful friend I can ever have” or “My brother is my best friend”. That is the beauty in it that has never ceased to amaze me. Furthermore, friendship is the most difficult relationship to keep, looking at the various forms it can change itself into. It usually gets hidden under the shades of relation that people turn it into. Maintaining the dignity of friendship in its purest form is not everyone’s cup of tea. I really admire those who are actually able to keep their friendship till the end of their lives, moreover, in its real form without taking the help of some other relation’s name to keep it safe.

To me friendship is not just a relation it is far more than a relationship. It is a commitment that you do to yourself that you will always be honest, stand by their side whatever be the situation and always be helpful to them. It is the most beautiful commitment to a person in this world. It is the only relation that can be shared with many people. A father could be a friend to his son/daughter, same way a mother could be. If we are talking about the race between friendship and love then also love wins the race, let me tell you that love starts with friendship if there is no commitment then there is no love it’s just an attraction. It is the commitment only which creates a bond of oneness between two persons and which creates a selfless thought of always being there for them and to take their responsibility like your own.

References

Burger, R. (2019). Eros and Mind: Aristotle on Philosophic Friendship and the Cosmos of Life. Epoché: A Journal for the History of Philosophy, 23(2), 365-380.

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Risseeuw, C. (2017). Conceptualizing friendship in time and place.

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