AMIZADE COMO A BASE DO AMOR NA ETHICA NICOMACHEA DE ARISTÓTELES

Abstract

This work seeks to understand the phenomenon of Friendship as the basis for Erotic Love in Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics, particularly Books VIII and IX. To this end, we will first analyze how friendship relationships transformed throughout the archaic and classical periods of Ancient Greece in order to identify the changes in meaning that the word used to characterize a friend underwent over the centuries. Subsequently, we will examine Philia in Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics, paying particular attention to Books VIII and IX, which present an exposition on the various types of friendship (for pleasure, utility, or virtue) and how they are found in human relationships. Finally, we will discuss how erotic love (Eros) is understood as an excess of friendship, raising problems with the interpretation that claims excess (extreme) is something negative, and hypothesizing that it is something bad because it does not stem from true friendship.