Friendship, Concern for the Other; A Look at Julia Annas’s Views in The Morality of Happiness

The revival of virtue ethics in the last century was an origin of new philosophical debates over friendship. Neo-Aristotelian schools disregard Aristotle’s definition of happiness; therefore, they have revived and modified certain Aristotelian notions as well as ancient post-Aristotelian schools, introducing “friendship” and “care” for the other as inseparable components of human happiness. Moreover, since ancient Aristotelian schools considered the most important demand of virtue ethics to consist in rational formation of one’s feelings, emotions, and internal passions in order to enjoy an internally good life, they were always accused of self-centrism, among other things. In this paper, we deal with “care for the other” as a new component of modern virtue ethics and consider the importance and role of “care for the other” as well as friendship in human happiness from an Aristotelian and neo-Aristotelian perspectives. Then, we consider the reasons why Annas—a neo-Aristotelian philosopher—does not take ancient theories of happiness to be imbued with self-centrism and why she gives more weight to “friendship” and “care for the other” as compared to ancient theories. She seeks to find an answer to questions such as whether humans can, in addition to thinking of their own happiness, develop a care for the other in a non-instrumental way.