What Friends Are For

Research output: Contribution to conferenceConference abstract for conferenceCommunication

My paper will advance a view of friendship based on the idea of duties to help friends flourish. My view builds on Dean Cocking and Jeanette Kennet’s ‘drawing view’ of friendship, in which friends are said to be “distinctively receptive to being directed and interpreted and so in these ways drawn by the other.” (Cocking and Kennett 1998, 503) This receptivity is said to uniquely change ‘aspects of my character’ in lasting ways. I am sympathetic to this picture, and specifically emphasize the unique opportunity that friendships offer for friends to engage each other in projects of moral improvement. My account should be able to explain that part of the value of friendship is to promote the welfare and happiness of friends, but also that the value of friendship is a moral value indeed.
Original languageEnglish
Publication date2020
Publication statusPublished - 2020

ID: 248335660