The Pros and Cons for Friendship of Utility

Aristotle is one of the greatest Greek philosophers. In his mind, Aristotle divides friendship as complete friendship and incomplete friendship. The complete friendship is based on mutual recognition of each other’s “goodness”, the incomplete friendships of pleasure and utility. Aristotle also classifies the friendship according to different levels of equality of relationships. What’s more, he also tells people about the relationship between self-love and friendship. Here, apart from all the qualities and virtues a person should have, friendship is an indispensable part of human property for the social life. Friendship of utility is the most common form of friendship in the social life, or to narrow it down to the working society, which exists among people who share the acquiescent agreement on doing useful things for mutual benefits or for the sake of at least one side’s good in some way. While this kind of friendship just like the two sides of a coin. It could be a quick shot for success, because friendship of utility is a good way to make use of the resources that are not at hand and friendship of utility is good for developing the society. However, it could be the last straw for a camel as well, because friendship of utility could destroy the justice and social equity and friendship of utility may break people’s heart with no mercy.

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Friendship of utility is a good way to make use of the resources that are not at hand. Friendship is an accumulation of interpersonal relationship based on daily social interaction. In another word, it can be called connections or networking. In the modern society, connections can give people a sustained competitive advantage in all respects of life. Sometimes people view friendship as a zero-sum game, and attempt to maximize the resources by the friendship of utility. Never less to say that friendship of utility can not only bring experience, contacts and credibility, but also the cash which are worshiped by some amount of people. In most instances, people can not live happily separating from their surroundings. They may always need any kind of resource from others in one way or another.  One friendship is one road, and all roads lead to Rome. It is sometimes the shortcut for success. For example, “All communities seem to be parts of the political community, since people journey together with something useful in mind, to supply something for life” (1160a). No matter for the sake of power or for the labor, for the safety or for the ruling, the friendship of utility makes it a success as a strong integrity, the friendship among people develops into the group, the community, the government, the nation or even the international union as solid and stable as a rock. In this aspect, the friendship of utility applies great importance for the good of mankind.

Friendship of utility is good for developing the society. The friendship of utility is often based upon difference: “The friendship that seems to occur most often between contraries is that for utility; since each of us is eager for whatever he happens to lack, and so gives something in return” (1159b). This kind of exchange goes the same with the commodity economy. Here, the goods in exchange are utilities of friendship. People use what they have to make a deal with those whose belongs are not in reach. In the theory of socialization, friendship is considered as a kind of social capital. The values among friendships are the basis of exchange. The more the exchange happens, the more value it would make for the market. And in a cycle, the development of the society provides more availabilities and possibilities and creates more need for the friendship of utilities. The frequency and quality of exchange could be the measuring standards for the utilities of the friendship. The friendship of utility could be divided into different levels, such as the basic ground exchange of psychical good, the benefit exchange for one’s sake and maybe also the need for a spirit supply in the mental. For the human communications, for example, merchants know how to do business, but they do not know how to make things. Artisans know the skills to make goods, but they have no idea of selling things. Then this kind of complementation contributes to the friendship of utility between them. There is an old saying, “A friend in need is a friend indeed”. So solving a friend’s problem actually promotes the friendship. Proper needs for a friend are in some degree an icing on the cake for the long-term relationship. The friendship of utility not only can happen between humans, but between human and animals. For example, dog is a symbol of loyalty for the companion for his owner or saving their human-buddies regardless of its own life in an emergency. Sometimes the dog keeping in the house is more than a pet, but a member of a family for the lonely people. “Such friendship is, as one might except, lasting, since in it are combined all the qualities that friends should have” (1156b).