The conclusion of the Lysis is that the speakers are not sure what to say about friendship. Socrates says if they cannot even say what a friend is, bystanders might wonder whether they actually are friends.
I think Cicero, in On Friendship, made many valid points on the topic.
At one point, he defines friendship as ‘agreement with goodwill and affection between people about all things divine and human’.
I think agreement about all things is a bit too strong a requirement; friends can disagree, but there are some topics on which agreement is important.
Cicero’s On Friendship is still one of the best things ever written on the topic, I think. “Agreement on all things divine and human” does not need to be taken literally. “All things divine and human” was a standard phrase in antiquity to indicate that one grasps the nature of the world. So Cicero is saying that true friends have the same basic understanding of reality, not that they agree on every single detail.
The conclusion of the Lysis is that the speakers are not sure what to say about friendship. Socrates says if they cannot even say what a friend is, bystanders might wonder whether they actually are friends.
I think Cicero, in On Friendship, made many valid points on the topic.
At one point, he defines friendship as ‘agreement with goodwill and affection between people about all things divine and human’.
I think agreement about all things is a bit too strong a requirement; friends can disagree, but there are some topics on which agreement is important.
Cicero’s On Friendship is still one of the best things ever written on the topic, I think. “Agreement on all things divine and human” does not need to be taken literally. “All things divine and human” was a standard phrase in antiquity to indicate that one grasps the nature of the world. So Cicero is saying that true friends have the same basic understanding of reality, not that they agree on every single detail.
OK, OK, can we be friends, Massimo? Really!
We have been for a long time!
Till death do us part!
‘Till then! Hopefully a long time into the future!