Nicomachean Ethics

In book eight of the Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle lists three types of friendships: friends who bring pleasure, friends who are useful, and friends of mutual good to each other.
The first type of friendship that Aristotle discusses is that of pleasure. “We love witty people not for what they are, but for the pleasure they give us” (1156a). Aristotle believes that this friendship exists only because one person gains pleasure from being around the other. However, a friendship based on pleasure can easily be dissolved when one person is no longer useful to the other. Aristotle believes that this type of friendship is most common in young people because they tend to only look for pleasurable things in life.
Aristotle then discusses the friendship of usefulness. This type of friendship is between two people who look to benefit from the friendship and “they find each other pleasant only to the extent that they have hopes of some good coming out of it” (1156a). He...