Friendship Is An Essential Aspect Of Human Happiness

The first relationship we experience, apart from what we have with our family, for the first time to explore our lives, is friendship. At this time, people tend to discover many of their strengths and flaws through having many friends and feel emotions that they have never felt before. Friends help shape who we are and where we fit in society, always learning and improving through one another. Many philosophers today and in the past will agree that friendship is an essential aspect of human happiness. Friendship is understood as a distinctively personal relationship that is grounded in a concern on the part of each friend for the welfare of the other, for the other’s sake, and that involves some degree of intimacy (Helm). But what exactly†¦show more content†¦Friendship based on utility and pleasure become selfishness. Human naturally set up relationships, going from person to person, for personal gain. Aristotle describes these kinds of friendship to be easily dissol ved and forgotten, for they are easily split apart. (Aristotle) We can see these types of relationships in businesses or parties, where people greet each other and create small talk, but no real relationship is present. Their motivation and objective is to get what they need and move on as quickly as possible. According to Aristotle, this type of friendship pertains mostly to younger people, who are advantageous, for they â€Å"...are at such a time of life pursue not what is pleasant but what is beneficial.† (Aristotle) For example, a regular customer at a pizza restaurant might quickly transition to a newly opened restaurant that provides better service for a cheaper price. Furthermore, utility and pleasure are desires that are influenced by passions and feelings, which are constantly and abruptly changing. Aristotle says that people in this state â€Å"...quickly become friends and quickly stop...† and â€Å"...love and stop loving quickly...† (Aristotle) The se relationships are unstable and unpredictable which might cause more harm than good. Aristotle moves on by showing that a perfect friendship is based on goodness