Welcome children to the space dedicated to you and your questions, thoughts, ideas and philosophical reflections. From today, my little philosophers, we continue a path interrupted some time ago and we do it with a topic that concerns us all closely: friendship. As good thinkers, we are not satisfied by the obvious but, as detective as we are, we investigate trying to discover the reasons and causes of any phenomenon, from the most simple to the most complex: after all, philosophy means love for knowledge and wisdom. That is why we will deal with this topic. Are you ready to answer some questions but above all to reflect on them?

What value have your friends and what kind of friend are you?

Many philosophers have already addressed this topic in the past. One of these was the Stagyrite Aristotle (384 BC – 322 BC) who spoke of it in the Nicomachean Ethics. We will get to know this wiseman better in the future when we talk about logic and science. For now, you have to know that he studied…. everything (he was in fact a polymath) and therefore also friendship.

It was Aristotle himself who uttered a thought on which we will be able to linger a little. He states that there are three types of friendship: friendship based on pleasure; friendship based on interest; friendship based on goodness (from Arist). So according to this, there could friendship for fun (therefore temporarily) or for interest (if you want something from another person).

However, trust, respect and affection are the bases of a solid and true friendship, which he speaks about at last, aren’t they? So I ask you: do you become friends just to have fun, to get something in return or for affection? How do you relate to your friends?

Maria Domenica Depalo