Blog Prompt 15: Do you agree with Aristotle’s proposition that there are three types of friendship: friendship of pleasure, friendship of utility, and friendships in virtue? Can you identify people in your life that fall into any of the three categories?

I do partially believe that there is three types of friendships. I believe, to some extent, we do have different types of friendships. Aristotle says that we have three types of friendships: utility, pleasure and friends of virtue. These types of friendships have the ability to evolve into different levels. For example i think that there are possibilities that a friendship of utility could lead to a friendship of virtue. A friendship of utility is one where both parties benefit from each other. A friendship of virtue is one where is a true friendship. One that is genuine, true, real and one that is built over a long period of time. Therefore, a utility friendship could change into a friendship of virtue because the more people get to know each other and the more people get to spend time together, the deeper a connection can go.

We watched a movie in class called Smoked Signals and it embodied some of the of Aristotle’s teachings. In this movie there was two main characters, Thomas and Victor, they set out on a journey to go to a distant land to retrieve Victors earnings. These main characters do not seem to have any type of friendship at all in the beginning. More specifically Victor really despised Thomas for some reason. We later learn that he is so aggressive towards him because Victor’s dad was always so kind to Thomas, however he was always abusing Victor and his mother. I imagine that this caused him to resent his father for treating this kid better than he treated his mom and himself. Towards the end of the movie we learn that his father was so kind to Thomas because he started the fire that killed Thomas’s parents. This relationship between the two characters seems to grow casually throughout the movie. Towards the end of the movie Victor seems to let Thomas in. He only begins to let him in because In this movie there was a scene that changed the relationship completely. I believe that the scene where the relationship changed when Victor had a conversation with Susi, one of Victor’s fathers friends. Susi had a talk with Victor about his father and why he left, because for a long time Victor was just angry with his father because he had left him and when he was there he would abuse them. But Susi changed his perspective that he wasn’t the reason he left. She told him the truth of why his father left. It was because like I mentioned early he killed Thomas’s parents. It wasn’t until that moment that he started to let Thomas in slowly.

Much like this movie we also have different types of friendships. One of my closer friends came from school. I think in the beginning we did start as a friendship of utility because i think he used me for my brain and i used him to gain some knowledge of how to play sports. Also if I’m being honest, I wasn’t raised with any brothers and I was the first male born in my family, so I think unconsciously I used him to see what having a brother was like. Over time our friendship grew, I have known him for almost two decades now, and it deepened because we have much different conversations than what we use to. Whenever my house burned down he gave me a bed to stay in and food to eat when I needed it, and vise versa when he needed me I had always been there whether it be girlfriend issues or family issues. He has always had my back since we were young and I consider him my brother now rather than just my best friend.