Friendship and Justice in Aristotle

In his Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle explores both justice and friendship as ways of maintaining the social and political fabric. Aristotle is concerned with discerning what constitutes the good life, and for him that good life can be found in city life and infriendship. To maintain order among men, both justice and friendship are required. Indeed in many ways justice and friendship seem to be the same thing on different scales, one pertaining to all citizens, …

…built upon a likeness between two people in “excellence and virtue” (p. 219). Perfect friends are “alike in excellence,” and they share “a view of what is just.” This vision makes perfect friendship of necessary to civic life. Not justice, but friendship binds the city together. The friendship of citizens who are good inspires others. Such friendship does nothing less than justice itself, effecting equality and addressing inequality through the actions of those who are good.