What are the marks by which friendship is defined (IX, 4)

Choose one as an essay topic:

The texts for these topics are found in Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics Books Eight and Nine.

TOPIC ONE: What is friendship (philia)? What are the marks by which friendship is defined (IX, 4)? What is the beginning of friendship (IX, 5)? What is the relationship of friendship to concord (IX, 6)? What is the role of beneficence in friendship (IX, 7)?

OR

TOPIC TWO: What is the nature of true self-love? Why is self-love so often subject to justified criticism? Why is some self-love good and other self-love bad? Why should a good man be a lover of self? How does one come to love oneself well?

OR

TOPIC THREE: Why does a good man need friendship? Present Aristotle’s arguments in IX, 9.

ethics