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The Ethics of Friendship 1

The Ethics of Friendship 1

Q In this module, we learned that, in Medieval Europe, friendship enjoyed a status not unlike marriage. Vernon writes: “So great was the political weight that such friendships could bear that they could effect changes in much the same way as a marriage” (p. 179). Marriages between friends, kissing, sleeping together, and even being buried together were not uncommon. In places like Africa and Asia, this experience is also not uncommon. Yet, in the West, these actions are confined to interactions within marriages. In at least 250 words total, please answer each of the following, drawing upon your reading materials and your personal insight. What have we lost or gained in our ability to fully express ourselves in our friendships in our contemporary, Western society? • To what extent is the enactment and expression of friendship similar/ different in contemporary society compared with Medieval Europe and Ancient Greece? Discuss the personal and societally-imposed constraints that limit our sharing close friendship bonds with others today.

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To find out the similarity or the difference between the expression of friendship in the contemporary society and the past, like ancient Greece or the medieval period, first one has to explain the concept and gestures of friendship in the ancient time. The importance of the friendship was different in the ancient time. It can be said that the friendship was one of the most discussed social topics in the ancient Greece. The society gave much weight on this relationship. One of the prominent examples of this was the statue of Harmodius and Aristogitor in the Athens in the second century (Vernon, 2010). These two friends were fought and died to remove the tyranny from the Athens (Vernon, 2010).