{"id":243,"date":"2021-03-29T11:06:17","date_gmt":"2021-03-29T11:06:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/nicomacheanethics\/chapter\/12-friendship-is-realized-in-living-together\/"},"modified":"2025-07-16T23:43:38","modified_gmt":"2025-07-16T23:43:38","slug":"12-friendship-is-realized-in-spending-life-together","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/nicomacheanethics\/chapter\/12-friendship-is-realized-in-spending-life-together\/","title":{"rendered":"Section 12: Friendship is realized in spending life together"},"content":{"raw":"

<\/span>Does it not follow, then, that, as for lovers the sight of the beloved is the thing they love most, and they prefer this sense to the others because on it love depends most for its being and for its origin, so for friends the most desirable thing is spending their lives together?<\/p>\r\nFor friendship is a partnership, and as a person is to himself, so he is to his friend. Now in his own case the consciousness of his existence is desirable, and so therefore is the consciousness of his friend's existence, and the activity of this consciousness is produced when they live their lives together, so that it is natural they aim at this. And whatever existence means for each class of people, whatever it is they choose to live for, in that they wish to occupy themselves with their friends. So some drink together, others play games together, others join in athletics or in hunting, or others in the study of philosophy--each kind of people spending their days together in whatever they love most in life. For since they wish to live their lives with their friends, they do and share in those things which give them the sense of living life together.\r\n\r\nThus the friendship of bad people turns out a bad thing. Because of their instability they unite in bad pursuits, and besides they become evil by becoming like each other. In contrast, the friendship of good people is good, being augmented by their companionship. And they are also thought to become better by their activities and by improving each other. For from each other they take the imprint of the characteristics they approve--whence the saying 'noble deeds from noble men.'\r\n\r\nSo much, then, for friendship. Our next task must be to discuss pleasure.","rendered":"

<\/span>Does it not follow, then, that, as for lovers the sight of the beloved is the thing they love most, and they prefer this sense to the others because on it love depends most for its being and for its origin, so for friends the most desirable thing is spending their lives together?<\/p>\n

For friendship is a partnership, and as a person is to himself, so he is to his friend. Now in his own case the consciousness of his existence is desirable, and so therefore is the consciousness of his friend’s existence, and the activity of this consciousness is produced when they live their lives together, so that it is natural they aim at this. And whatever existence means for each class of people, whatever it is they choose to live for, in that they wish to occupy themselves with their friends. So some drink together, others play games together, others join in athletics or in hunting, or others in the study of philosophy–each kind of people spending their days together in whatever they love most in life. For since they wish to live their lives with their friends, they do and share in those things which give them the sense of living life together.<\/p>\n

Thus the friendship of bad people turns out a bad thing. Because of their instability they unite in bad pursuits, and besides they become evil by becoming like each other. In contrast, the friendship of good people is good, being augmented by their companionship. And they are also thought to become better by their activities and by improving each other. For from each other they take the imprint of the characteristics they approve–whence the saying ‘noble deeds from noble men.’<\/p>\n

So much, then, for friendship. Our next task must be to discuss pleasure.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":249,"menu_order":16,"template":"","meta":{"pb_show_title":"on","pb_short_title":"","pb_subtitle":"","pb_authors":[],"pb_section_license":""},"chapter-type":[48],"contributor":[],"license":[],"class_list":["post-243","chapter","type-chapter","status-publish","hentry","chapter-type-numberless"],"part":220,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/nicomacheanethics\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/243","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/nicomacheanethics\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/nicomacheanethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/chapter"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/nicomacheanethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/249"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/nicomacheanethics\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/243\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":710,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/nicomacheanethics\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/243\/revisions\/710"}],"part":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/nicomacheanethics\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/parts\/220"}],"metadata":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/nicomacheanethics\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/243\/metadata\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/nicomacheanethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=243"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"chapter-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/nicomacheanethics\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapter-type?post=243"},{"taxonomy":"contributor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/nicomacheanethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributor?post=243"},{"taxonomy":"license","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/nicomacheanethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/license?post=243"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}