The Good, the Bad, and the Perfect
In Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle
tells us that there are three types of friendships; the useful, the
pleasurable, and the perfect. In this paper, I am going to try to show why the
pleasurable friendship is the worst kind to have, and of course why the perfect
friendship would be the best.
"Now those who love each other for their utility do not love each other
for themselves but in virtue of some good which they get form each other."
(Nic. Ethics Bk.8:3) Among my extremes of the
pleasurable and the perfect, utility is definitely the middle ground.
