Friendship

Liberty, Equality, and Utility

By James O. Grunebaum

Subjects: Ethics
Paperback : 9780791457184, 202 pages, March 2003
Hardcover : 9780791457177, 202 pages, March 2003

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Table of contents

Acknowledgments

1. Preference for Friends

2. The Structure of Friendship

3. Internal Justifications

4. External Justifications

5. Conclusions: Friendships and Preferences

Notes

Selected Bibliography

Index

Addresses the question of whether special preference for friends is morally justified.

Description

In Friendship, James O. Grunebaum introduces a new conceptual framework to articulate, explain, and understand similarities and differences between various conceptions of friendship. Asking whether special preference for friends is morally justified, Grunebaum answers that question by analyzing a comprehensive comparison of not only Aristotle's three well-known kinds of friendship—pleasure, utility, and virtue—but also a variety of lesser-known friendship conceptions from Kant, C. S. Lewis, and Montaigne. The book clarifies differences about how friends ought to behave toward each other and how these differences are, in part, what separate the various conceptions of friendship.

James O. Grunebaum is Professor of Philosophy at Buffalo State College, State University of New York. He is the author of Private Ownership.