Friendship

In Our Time: Philosophy

BBC

History

4.5 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 2 March 2006

⏱️ 42 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the concept of friendship. In Greek and Roman times, friendship was thought of as being an essential constituent of both a good society and a good life; a good society because it lay at the heart of participative civic democracy; a good life because it nurtured wisdom and happiness. It is this period which gives us the texts on friendship which, to this day, are arguably the most important of their kind. Amongst their authors is Aristotle, who engaged in one of the great philosophical discussions on the subject. For Aristotle, friendship could fall into three categories: it could be based on utility, pleasure or goodness. In its latter state, Aristotle described it as being 'a single soul dwelling in two bodies'. So how did the Ancients establish the parameters of the true nature of friendship in the literature and philosophy that followed? How have different forms of friendship helped or hindered creativity and intellectual pursuit? What has been the apparent relationship between friendship and power? And what of the darker aspects of friendship - jealousy, envy and exploitation? With Angie Hobbs, Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Warwick; Mark Vernon, Visiting Lecturer in Philosophy at Syracuse University and London Metropolitan University; John Mullan, Professor of English at University College London.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Thanks for down learning the In Our Time podcast. For more details about In Our Time and for our terms of use, please go to BBC.co.uk.
0:09.0	I hope you enjoy the programme.
0:12.0	Hello, in Greek and Roman times, friendship was thought of as being an essential constituent
0:18.6	of both a good society and a good life.
0:21.2	A good society because it lay at the heart of participative civic democracy, a good life
0:26.3	because it nurtured wisdom and happiness. It's this period which gives us the
0:30.7	text of friendship which to this day are arguably the most important of their kind.
0:35.0	Amongst their authors is Aristotle who engaged in one of the great philosophical discussions on the subject.
0:40.0	For Aristotle, friendship could fall into three categories.
0:43.4	It could be based on utility, pleasure or goodness.
0:46.5	In its latter state, Aristotle described it as being a single soul
0:50.2	dwelling in two bodies.
0:52.2	So how did the ancients establish the parameters of the true
0:55.0	nature of friendship in our literature and philosophy that followed? How of different forms of friendship
0:59.8	helped or hindered creativity and intellectual pursuit. What's been the apparent
1:03.7	relationship between friendship and power and what of the darker aspects of
1:07.2	friendship, jealousy, envy and exploitation. With me to discuss friendship
1:11.4	are Angie Hobbs, lecturer in philosophy at the University of Warwick.
1:15.0	Mark Vernon, visiting lecture in philosophy at Syracuse University, and John Mullen, Professor of English at UCL.
1:21.0	Angie Hobbs, can you tell us the role
1:23.0	Flynship played in the ancient world? Well if we start with Greece, I think
1:27.9	there are a number of features of the way Greek society was structured and the way
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.