Civic Friendship

Abstract

This paper seeks to examine the plausibility of the concept of 'Civic Friendship' as a philosophical model for a conceptualisation of 'belonging'. Such a concept, would hold enormous interest for educators in enabling the identification of particular virtues, attitudes and values that would need to be taught and nurtured to enable the civic relationship to be passed on from generation to generation. I consider both of the standard arguments for civic friendship: that it can be understood within the Aristotelian typology as either a form of utility friendship or as a form of virtue friendship. I argue that civic friendship may not be the most appropriate model and that attempts to resolve the problems through looking on it as a political metaphor leave it unable to fulfil the function for which it was originally designed in Ancient Greece. Finally, I emphasize the need to carefully consider which particular metaphors we choose for civic relationships and how we subsequently use them.

Clubhouse Community Support for Life: Staff–Member Relationships and Recovery

“…Contemporary Aristotelian concepts [42,43,[45][46][47][48][49][50][51][52][53][54][55][56]] also inform what may be named a friendship-for-life process. Friends trust one another in goodwill (benevolence) and judgment concerning the other's welfare on the basis of understanding and respecting for who and what the friend is.…”

Understanding Humanistic Management

“…BWhen men are friends they have no need of justice^, wrote Aristotle (1980, VIII, 1), adding that Bfriendship seems to hold states together, and lawgivers care more for it than for justice; for unanimity seems to be something like friendship, and this they aim at most of all.^(Ibid) This idea has been rendered in modern times with the notion of Bcivic friendship^ (Healy 2011;Leontsini 2013). As this latter scholar argues, friendship between fellow citizens is important because it contributes to the unity of communities and of the state, by transmitting feelings of intimacy and solidarity.…”

Friendship as a Political Concept: A Groundwork for Analysis

“…These doubts overlap with concerns raised by Mary Healy (Healy, 2011). Healy rejects the claim that friendship can be a metaphor or model for the bond between citizens because it cannot be transposed from its Ancient Greek context -a context which is different from and objectionable for contemporary polities based on freedom and equality (Healy, 2011: 229-230).…”

“…In addition, Diane Jeske (2008: 49) claims that those who model political obligations on friendship tend to be selective in the aspects of friendship that they recognise. These doubts overlap with concerns raised by Mary Healy (2011). Healy (2011: 229–230) rejects the claim that friendship can be a metaphor or model for the bond between citizens because it cannot be transposed from its Ancient Greek context – a context which is different from and objectionable for contemporary polities based on freedom and equality.…”