Who are the political friends? Homonoia and political friendship in Aristotle’s political thinking

Abstract

The notion of political friendship holds a unique institutional function in Aristotle’s political philosophy. He considers political friendship, as a specific account of friendship between citizens of the polis, as an indispensible component of a functioning state. In my dissertation, I aim to provide an extensive analysis of the notion of political friendship in Aristotle’s political thinking, by establishing its proper position in Aristotle’s teleological understanding of politics and his theory of friendship. In the first part, I examine three political notions, which are eudaimonia, common good, and political justice, together with political friendship, and investigate the reciprocal relationships between these concepts. I argue that in Aristotle’s view, these four political goods, which clearly affect one another, contribute to good lives of the citizens of the polis constitutively. In the second part, I investigate the position of political friendship in Aristotle’s friendship theory. I examine the characteristics of different kinds of friendships and determine the proper place of political friendship in this framework. I argue that political friendship cannot be considered merely as friendship of utility, because it requires the virtue of acting according to the common good, even if it conflicts with one’s temporary personal interests. Finally, I discussed the necessary practical conditions that a society must sustain in order to provide political friendship between its citizens.