Cicero, On Friendship (part 1) - Introduction to Philosophy

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In this discussion/lecture session from my Fall 2013 Introduction to Philosophy class at Marist College, we begin our study of Cicero's work, On Friendship. We discuss in particular the different sorts of relationships within which we find meaning, enjoyment and satisfaction, what sorts of good people make a central priority in their lives and what the implications for friendship are. We also discuss Cicero's strong claim that only good people can actually be friends with each other. The classic question -- whether friendship is based on difference and opposites, or on similarity gets transformed into questions about what kind of opposites really can be attracted to each other, and a discussion about the attractive nature of virtue.
A student asks a particularly good question -- how does Cicero's position on friendship get past Aristotle's position, which also distinguishes between friendships based in virtue or moral goodness and friendships that are based merely in pleasure or usefulness. One answer to this is that Cicero work off of Aristotle's position, adding considerations of other goods. A better answer is that Cicero focuses more explicitly on virtue's attractiveness, virtue's natural expression in doing good actions and good will towards others, and the importance of "re-loving" (redamare), i.e. loving in return
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#Cicero #Relationships #Philosophy #Friendship #Virtue #Morality #Guidelines #Happiness #PersonalDevelopment #Motivation
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