Read more
The Routledge Handbook of the Philosophy of Friendship is a superb compilation of chapters that explore the history, major topics, and controversies in philosophical work on friendship. It gives both the advanced scholar and the novice in the field an overview and also an in-depth exploration of the connections between friendship and the history of philosophy, morality, practical rationality, value theory, and interpersonal relationships more generally.
The Handbook consists of 31 newly commissioned chapters by an international slate of contributors, and is divided into six sections:
I. Historical Perspectives
II. Who Can Be Our Friends?
III. Friendship and Other Relationships
IV. The Value and Rationality of Friendship
V. Friendship, Morality, and Virtue
VI. New Issues in Philosophy of Friendship
This volume is essential reading not only for anyone interested in the philosophical questions involving friendship, but also for anyone interested in related topics such as love, sex, moral duties, the good life, the nature of rationality, interpersonal and interspecies relationships, and the nature of the person.
List of contents
Introduction 1. Friendship in the Confucian Tradition 2. Plato's Erotic Friendships 3. Aristotle on the Nature and Value of Friendship 4. The Stoics and Augustine on Friendship and Altruism 5. Kantian Friendship 6. Wollstonecraft on 'That Simple Food' of Friendship 7. Friendship Between Children 8. The Physician as Friend to the Patient 9. Can Parents and Their Children Be Friends? 10. God and Redemptive Friendship 11. Friendship and Citizenship 12. Are Our Companion Animals Friends or Family? 13. Friendship and Family 14. Friendship Love and Romantic Love 15. Friendship and Marriage 16. Friendship and Self-Interest 17. Friendship and the Personal Good 18. The Value of Friendship 19. Friendship and Practical Reason 20. Friendship and Epistemic Partiality 21. Epistemic Partiality to Friends and Value Commitments 22. Friendship and Consequentialism 23. Partiality to Friends 24. Friendship and Special Obligations 25. Are You a Good Friend? 26. Friendship and Loyalty 27. Friendship and Exploitation 28. Friendship and Personal Identity 29. Friends with Benefits 30. Friendship and Social Media 31. Friendship and Feminist Values in Film
About the author
Diane Jeske is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Iowa, USA. She is the author of
Rationality and Moral Theory: How Intimacy Generates Reasons (2008),
The Evil Within: Why We Need Moral Philosophy (2018), and
Friendship and Social Media: A Philosophical Exploration (2019).
Summary
A superb compilation that explores the history, major topics, and controversies in philosophical work on friendship. It gives an overview and in-depth exploration of the connections between friendship and the history of philosophy, morality, practical rationality, value theory, and interpersonal relationships more generally.
