TY - JOUR
T1 - Plato's rejection of the instrumental account of friendship in the lysis
AU - Curzer, Howard J.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2014 Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden.
PY - 2014/8/15
Y1 - 2014/8/15
N2 - In the Lysis, Socrates argues that friendship is driven by a desire to use others for one's own gain (210b-d). Some commentators take Socrates to be speaking for Plato on this point. By contrast, I shall argue that the Lysis is a reductio ad absurdum of this instrumental account of friendship. First, three arguments in the Lysis (210c-d, 214b-215b, 216d-218a) reach counterintuitive conclusions which may be avoided by abandoning the common premise that friendship is instrumental. Second, the dramatic context includes counterexamples to the instrumental account of friendship (e.g. the two friendship trios: Lysis, Menexenus, and Socrates; Lysis, his mother, and his father). Third, Socrates distinguishes between people who are desirable because they are useful, and "true friends" who are desirable for their own sake (219c-221b). This is an explicit rejection of the instrumental account of friendship.
AB - In the Lysis, Socrates argues that friendship is driven by a desire to use others for one's own gain (210b-d). Some commentators take Socrates to be speaking for Plato on this point. By contrast, I shall argue that the Lysis is a reductio ad absurdum of this instrumental account of friendship. First, three arguments in the Lysis (210c-d, 214b-215b, 216d-218a) reach counterintuitive conclusions which may be avoided by abandoning the common premise that friendship is instrumental. Second, the dramatic context includes counterexamples to the instrumental account of friendship (e.g. the two friendship trios: Lysis, Menexenus, and Socrates; Lysis, his mother, and his father). Third, Socrates distinguishes between people who are desirable because they are useful, and "true friends" who are desirable for their own sake (219c-221b). This is an explicit rejection of the instrumental account of friendship.
KW - Lysis
KW - Plato
KW - Socrates
KW - friendship
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84907707419&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1163/20512996-12340020
DO - 10.1163/20512996-12340020
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84907707419
SN - 0142-257X
VL - 31
SP - 352
EP - 368
JO - Polis (United Kingdom)
JF - Polis (United Kingdom)
IS - 2
ER -