El amigo en Aristóteles como posibilidad de autoconocimiento y las diferencias con un adulador

Abstract

From the aristotelean perspective, the differences between a friend and a flatterer are established, describing the essential elements which constitute a true friendship relationship, where elements of ethics as an essential virtue and self-knowledge come together. In this sense, it is established, following the Stagirite, that one have a friendship relationship without these conditions: 1) doing good, or what seems to be good, to others; 2) wishing that your friend exists and loves for the love of their own friend; 3) spending time with and choosing the same things as your friend; 4) sharing your friend’s happiness and sorrows. Conversely, there can be no friendship if there are no conditions of equality, similar virtue and reciprocity between friends; where one wishes good for the other as much as for oneself.