Living in community as a good or end in itself.

Liberals tend to think that civic friendship is merely a kind of 'commercial' or 'advantage' friendship--people associate with one another in a political community only because they can secure some sort of private benefit from them, as it happens in commercial exchange. It is mutually advantageous for people to associate in community. If they recognize Aristotle's virtuous friendship, this type of friendship is limited to and perhaps between husband and wife.

For example, Bernard Yack interprets Aristotle as identifying political friendship as a form of shared advantage friendship (The Problems of a Political Animal, 55-6). See page 98 for his brand of personalism/individualism.) How do such liberals reach such conclusions when reading Aristotle? Because they believe the good life of which Aristotle speaks is a private good, determined by the individual alone, and in relation only to himself, not in relation to others, (except, perhaps, in so far as they contribute to his happiness).

Aristotle does concede that virtuous friendships are rare, but this is because virtue is rare. iirc, he also says that it is not possible for us to become close friends with everyone. Nonetheless, this does not mean that civic, or political, friendship cannot be an instance of virtuous friendship. It depends on the constitution of the polity, and what character the citizens have. But more importantly, friendship is defined by the good which is being pursued. The shared good that two people have when engaging in commerce is that commercial relationship they have, which is desired not for its own sake but for the sake of the goods which are being exchanged and the private benefit each derives from the relationship as a result. That is to say, the relationship is mutual beneficial (human mutualism), but it is ordered towards the private good of each participant. In contrast, the virtuous friendship is ordered towards the shared pursuit of virtue, not as individuals, but together. Or, the shared life of virtue. Similarly, the common good of a political community is the shared good life.

The word synergy may help us better understand what is meant by the common good of a community -- it should be obvious living well together cannot be done by the participants alone, it must be done by all. But this apparently is very difficult to grasp. On the other hand, it may be misleading to use this term--the citizens are not working together for some other goal; the goal is precisely to live well with one another.

Hence, among liberals there is a conceptual confusion of what is truly private and what is common. If there wasn't such a confusion, they should be able to see that the friendship that a husband and a wife share is tied to their domestic life. One's happiness is achieved through living this common life well. Domestic happiness is not the pleasure or other goods one is able to secure through one's spouse.

Let us take an extreme case. Is it possible for the virtuous man (and his family) to live among the vicious (Lot in Sodom?). They could refuse to associate with others, except when it is necessary to do so in order to exchange products. Otherwise, one may end up living like them, to one degree or another. (As is the case with Lot, who may not have indulged in the same sins as the Sodomites, but was not fully righteous either?)

Would we say that there is something incomplete about his happiness? Not if he had a right relationship with God. His opportunities to perform charitable external actions for his neighbor might be limited, but he could still pray for them. However, if he did not have a right standing with God, but his ultimate end was his own good, would his happiness not be affected in some way?

If human beings are not ordered to living with others by their very nature, then do not political associations (non-familial or non-commercial) become purely voluntary, unless there is some mutual and necessary advantage to be derived from it? To obtain from others what satisfies the exigences of life? External goods may be necessary for survivial, but they are not sufficient unto themselves for true happiness.

Started on January 17.