Wow! What a Person!

We have been looking at the ideal traits that a person at peace with himself has and how these are the same traits that we look for in others to make good friends. A couple posts ago I gave a list of those traits;

Friends are our greatest good and so a study on how we form friendships is also a great study. We are looking for a good friend; according to our perception of goodness. Of course there are standards we agree on for good character such as justice, kindness, courage etc. An ideal person will try to have these as their own traits also. The reason for this is that we all want whats best for ourselves and doing what is right keeps our hearts at peace.  All our ambitions should answer to this and this is a healthy kind of selfishness.

One of the worse things that can happen to us is to lose our individuality. That is why the need to keep up with others and compare ourselves with them is unhealthy. It is called selfishness but really isn't in our best interest. To love life means to love being an individual person. Who want's to be someone else? The ideal person celebrates this in the same way a parent loves to see the personality of each child revealed. This person's mind is full of contemplation, will have no regrets and look forward to the future. But he also grieves when it is proper and enjoys what he should within himself.

Wow! What a person! When we make friends, these are the things we want. A friend is an extension of our inner selves. We want someone who has similar standards; we like their personality and celebrate it with them; we want to exchange joy and grief as though the person were our own self.

These are the characteristics of ideal friendships that we seek both in ourselves and others. But we are also human so next we will look at a couple scenarios that aren't ideal. Afterward Aristotle continues not on the kinds of friendships we have looked at; such as utility, pleasure and commonality; but he looks at depth. It is an interesting study. Sometimes I have to back up and catch up on details, (hopefully you don't mind.) The last chapter is coming up and it goes in depth on pleasure.