Aristotle on How to Be a Good Friend

At the beginning of his treatment of friendship in the Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle says that friendship “goes with virtue.” How does this claim situate within Aristotle’s broader ethical theory? The paper explores and specifies the link between a) cultivating friendship and b) cultivating virtue. It outlines a reading according to which Aristotle advocates three claims: 1) the process by which a friendship improves is the same as the process by which the friends become more virtuous; 2) a virtuous person cares primarily—and, in the case of complete friendship, solely—about the happiness of others; 3) friendship is the primary social vehicle for the cultivation of virtue. The paper focuses most on claims 1 and 2, fi rst by considering Aristotle’s analysis of friendship in NE VIII.2 and, second, by describing the features of complete friendship. The paper ends by considering claim 3 through the distinction between habituation and the cultivation of virtue.