# Friendship or Love—Continued explained — Nicomachean Ethics > Chapter companion for Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle. ## What happens This chapter continues the examination of friendship, arguing that the happy or blessed man does indeed need friends. It refutes the notion that self-sufficiency eliminates the need for friends, emphasizing that happiness is an ongoing activity, not a static possession. The good man finds pleasure in contemplating the virtuous actions of his friends, who serve as 'another self.' Living together with friends enhances virtuous activity and provides continuous practice in virtue. The chapter also explores self-love in the good man, who prioritizes the noble over personal gain, even sacrificing wealth, honor, or life for friends and country. It concludes that friendship is essential for a complete human life, as man is naturally social and finds his greatest fulfillment in shared existence with good companions. ## Themes in this chapter ### Friendship and Community Central theme: the happy man needs friends as 'another self' for shared virtuous activity, mutual contemplation, and continuous practice of virtue. ### Pleasure and Pain Explored in the context of the good man's pleasure in contemplating his friend's virtuous acts and the pain of vice, as well as the inherent pleasantness of conscious existence and shared life. ## Character check-ins ### Aristotle Primary author and philosopher presenting the argument that the happy man needs friends for continuous virtuous activity and contemplation. ### Theognis Quoted as a source supporting the idea that living with good men provides practice in virtue. ## Key lines > But the good man stands in the same relation to his friend as to himself, for his friend is another self: just as his own existence, then, is desirable to each, so, or nerve to act in the noblest possible manner, the result would be that both the wants of the community would be perfectly satisfied, and at the same time each individually would win the greatest of all good things—for virtue is that. A virtuous person relates to a friend as if to himself, because a friend is a second self. Since one's own existence is desirable, so is the friend's. If each person acted nobly, the community's needs would be met, and each would achieve the greatest good—virtue. _Aristotle introduces the concept of the friend as 'another self' (alter ego), linking friendship to self-love and the pursuit of virtue._ > Again, it is surely absurd to make the happy man a solitary being: for no one would choose to have all conceivable good things on condition of being alone; for man is a social being, and by nature adapted to share his life with others. It is ridiculous to think the happy person should be isolated. No one would want every possible good if it meant being alone, because humans are naturally social and meant to live with others. _Aristotle argues against the idea of a solitary happy life, emphasizing that human nature is inherently social and requires companionship._ > He will throw away money and honour, and, in a word, all the good things for which men compete, claiming for himself that which is noble; for he will prefer a brief period of intense pleasure to a long period of mild pleasure, one year of noble life to many years of ordinary life, one great and noble action to many little ones. The good man will sacrifice wealth, honor, and all competitive goods to claim what is noble. He prefers a short, intense pleasure over a long, mild one, a single year of noble living over many ordinary years, and one great noble deed over many small ones. _This illustrates the good man's self-love in the proper sense: prioritizing the noble over mere material or temporal goods, even to the point of self-sacrifice._ ## Links - HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/nicomachean_ethics_se/chapters/friendship-or-love-continued - Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/nicomachean_ethics_se - All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/nicomachean_ethics_se/chapters