In Friendship: A Place for the Exploration of Being Human

Abstract

The ancient Greek philosophical discourse harbors an anthropology radically discontinuous with the framework of modernity. Rather than emphasizing the tension between the individual and community, and far from understanding the political on the ground of instinctual sacrifice (a constant from Hobbes, to Nietzsche, to Freud), Greek thought illuminates the interdependence of ethics and politics, and situates the human being in a cosmos in which the human is neither central nor prominent. In particular the reflection of philia, most notably in Plato and Aristotle, calls for the exploration of human potentiality with outstanding vigor and visionary audacity.