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.
Introduction
Diane Jeske
Part I: Historical Perspectives
1. Friendship in the Confucian Tradition
Andrew Lambert
2. Plato’s Erotic Friendships
C.D.C. Reeve
3. Aristotle on the Nature and Value of Friendship
Corinne Gartner
4. The Stoics and Augustine on Friendship and Altruism
Tamer Nawar
5. Kantian Friendship
Karen Stohr
6. Wollstonecraft on ‘That Simple Food’ of Friendship
Ruth Abbey
Part II: Who Can Be Our Friends?
7. Friendship Between Children
Mary Healy
8. The Physician as Friend to the Patient
Nir Ben-Moshe
9. Can Parents and Their Children Be Friends?
Kristjan Kristjansson
10. God and Redemptive Friendship
Paul Moser
11. Friendship and Citizenship
Jonathan Seglow
12. Are Our Companion Animals Friends or Family?
Cheryl Abbate
Part III: Friendship and Other Relationships
13. Friendship and Family
Monika Betzler
14. Friendship Love and Romantic Love
Berit Brogaard
15. Friendship and Marriage
Christopher Bennett
Part IV: The Value and Rationality of Friendship
16. Friendship and Self-Interest
Richard Fumerton
17. Friendship and the Personal Good
David O. Brink
18. The Value of Friendship
Thomas Hurka
19. Friendship and Practical Reason
Daniel Koltonski
20. Friendship and Epistemic Partiality
Sarah Stroud
21. Epistemic Partiality to Friends and Value Commitments
Sanford Goldberg
Part V: Friendship, Morality, and Virtue
22. Friendship and Consequentialism
Scott Woodcock
23. Partiality to Friends
Troy Jollimore
24. Friendship and Special Obligations
Jörg Löschke
25. Are You a Good Friend?
Simon Keller
26. Friendship and Loyalty
John Kleinig
27. Friendship and Exploitation
George Tsai
Part VI: New Issues in Philosophy of Friendship
28. Friendship and Personal Identity
Katarina Perovic
29. Friends with Benefits
Natasha McKeever
30. Friendship and Social Media
Alexis Elder
31. Friendship and Feminist Values in Film
Katrien Schaubroeck
Biography
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).
