Three Types of Friendship

To Aristotle, friendship was a fundamental part of the "good life". A life devoted to good friends was a life well-lived. This is a long way from our current understanding of friendship, where we cling to the word "friend", while stripping it of all its meaning and applying it to anyone we add on Facebook. The OUP word of 2009 was, after all, "unfriend".

However perhaps Aristotle can still help us understand. He split friendship into three. There were those friends who you did something with, such as work friends. The friendship relies on your shared activity, meaning if you get a new job, it is unlikely the friendship will survive. Secondly there are those friends with whom you share a passion, such as golf, or going to the gym together. Again, the friendship is only supported by this crutch, and removing it leads to the friendships collapse. Arguably these two categories of friendship are now also supported by facebook and online networks.

Lastly though there are those true friends who you connect with on a deeper level. You can go for years without seeing each other and connect just as easily afterwards, as the bond doesn't rely on shared experiences, but a shared understanding of each other. So though friendship has changed beyond recognition in the last ten years, "friendships of excellence" have remained virtually unchanged for thousands of years.

For more information listen to Mark Vernon on Philosophy Bites