Confessions By Saint Augustine And The Nicomachean Ethics

Julie Costello Professor Halper December 18, 2015 Final Paper In both, Confessions by Saint Augustine and The Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle the theme of friendship is constantly portrayed. Each philosopher has his own respected thoughts and opinions about the different aspects of friendship. This paper will argue both the similarities and differences between Aristotle and Saint Augustine’s argument about the role of friendship. In The Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle argues that friendship is the greatest of external goods which is necessary to live a pleasant life. Aristotle then proceeds to define three different kinds of friendships: utility, pleasure, and purpose. He begins his argument with examining friendship based on utility. He claims that under this friendship, both people derive some benefit from the other. He indicates that this type of friendship is when two people use one another to be able to better oneself with the help of the other partner in the friendship. Aristotle further supports this claim when he state s, â€Å"Now those who love each other because of utility do not love each other for themselves but in virtue of some good which they get from each other,† (Nicomachean Ethics, p.144) implying that this is the type of love that people get from one another for the purpose of getting some type of good (idk if good is a good word here) out of the other person. (kinda sounds like a wordy sentence) The good that the other person is getting out of the friendshipShow MoreRelated Excessive of Self-restraint in Saint Augustine’s Confessions1686 Words   |  7 PagesExcessive of Self-restraint in Saint Augustine’s Confessions When it comes to renunciation, no pain, no gain is what Ive slowly, reluctantly, inexorably come to believe. And when Pete opted for scholarly monkhood, I think he was just trying to outsmart his pain. . . . Hed calculated that by considering the physical world illusory and burying his nose in metaphysical texts he could go on doing something comfortable--while his ignorance and sufferings and hometown and troublesome familyRead MoreIn Confessions By Saint Augustine He Recognizes That Friendships1329 Words   |  6 PagesIn Confessions by Saint Augustine he recognizes that friendships are necessities to human life because they bring people happiness and during the course of his life he ponders the role of happiness plays in his life. The philosophical term for happiness is Eudaimonia which is imperative to creating a whole person. Friends help strengthen and encourage Augustine to find a sense of community and belonging. He evaluates his friendships over the course of the three life stages. These stages in his lifeRead More Happiness in the Fourth Epistle of Alexander Popes An Essay on Man5580 Words   |  23 Pagesbeginning of the fourth epistle, The heritage of the supremacy of happiness is impressive. For example, Aristotle believed that happiness was mans strongest desire which involved an activity of the soul in accordance with virtue or excellence (Nicomachean Ethics I. v). Likewise Cicero stated that those who achieve [virtue], guiding themselves by magnanimity and uprightness, are always happy (De Finibus V. xxiv. 71). Richard Hooker similarly argued that all men desire a happy life based on the unencumbered