One of the texts I started teaching in my classes years ago is On Friendship by the great Roman philosopher and statesman, Marcus Tullius Cicero. I find ways to work reading and discussion of this short but rich book into my Ethics, Introduction to Philosophy, and Philosophy of Love and Friendship classes. I've been surprised by how much students in the 21st century respond to the work - they find a lot of value in its treatment of the topics.
Cicero of course draws upon some ideas and insights derived from Aristotle's own treatment of the topics involved in friendships and relationships, found in his Nicomachean and Eudemian Ethics. But On Friendship isn't just adding to Aristotle a few centuries afterwards. It is a thoughtful, incisive examination of a number of important issues arising out of friendships.
A while back, I shot a sequence of lecture videos on this work, and more recently, I edited them into a set of episodes in the Sadler's Lectures podcast. There are twelve of them, covering all of the key ideas of the work in depth and detail. Here's links to each of these podcast episodes
- Defining Genuine Friendship
- The Advantages Of Friendship
- Friendship Arising From Nature
- Three Mistaken Views On Friendship
- Avoiding Friendship To Be Free
- Limits On Loyalty To Friends
- Old Friends And New Friends
- Loving Things Vs. Loving Persons
- Friendship, Superiority, And Inferiority
- Criticizing Friends
- Slowly Ending Friendships
- Choosing Friends Carefully
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