Book Ix Summary of Nicomachean Ethics

Book IX Summary

After completing my reading of Book IX in Nicomachean Ethics the theme I took away from my reading was friendship equality. In summary for friendship to exist, each friend must treat each other justly. With equality between friends disputes need to be handled in a by the friend who receives, whether than showing preference to one friend or another. In Book IX the meaning of friendship is driven through pleasure. This pleasure is dissolved when you lose connection with a friend, making that person dissolve from being a friend. Losing a friend was never a friend in the first place, yet it is hard since one of the friends in the situation can seem to be misled into thinking they are loved and cherished by the other friend. The feeling we have of our friends, is the same feeling we have for ourselves. A friend wishes well on himself, along wishing well on you (the person who he/she is friends with). Bad friends or bad people do not wish well on themselves or others making them a bad friend or person. Friends are good people, since they have the feeling of doing good for themselves which will reflect good towards your friendship. In NE friendship is viewed as one of the highest goods in life, so a good person would not be able to achieve being a good person without having friends, who are also good as well. It is good to have many friends but only few we are intimate towards. We need friends more in adversity but want more in prosperity since we would want our friends to enjoy good times and not bring as many down during adversity.