Altruism

One thing we talked about in our discussions on friendship was the question of altruism. Zach said that complete friendships seem inherently self-interested; if reciprocity is a key element of the complete friendship, along with well-wishing, then wouldn’t the friends only be wishing one another well only to be wished well in return due to reciprocity?

I thought this was a very interesting reading of Aristotle, and also a very bleak one. As a philosopher, I’d like to believe that altruism exists. I really do believe that people can do things just because they are good things to do. As to how often this actually happens, I am not as optimistic, but that’s a different blog post. I think the fact that we feel good when we do good things is definitely a perk, but if a person is truly acting in accordance with virtue, these warm fuzzy feelings are not the motivation behind the action.

Reciprocity is indeed a necessary condition of the complete friendship, but it is not a sufficient condition. We should expect our friends to wish us well just as we wish them well if we are entering a friendship of virtue. If this mutual well-wishing were not present, the relationship would not be virtuous. However, affection, intimacy, cooperation, and pursuit of similar activities are necessary to form the complete friendship as well as goodwill. There is an element of activity present in the complete friendship that is not found in the other types, and this activity is the active pursuit of virtue with another person. Virtue is a good in itself – we are supposed to practice virtue in order to become virtuous people, and we are supposed to become virtuous people in order to achieve the highest form of happiness. I don’t think it’s possible to achieve the happiness that comes from activity of the soul in accordance with virtue by acting on the motivation of personal gain rather than acting altruistically. In fact, I would argue that altruism is a virtue itself.