Chapter Twelve - Philia and Caritas

Summary

Harry Jaffa and Lorraine Smith Pangle seem to suggest that the Greek concept of philia is inherently opposed to Christian caritas in that the latter implicitly or explicitly excludes the former. The author gives a short sketch of some of the central aspects of Aristotle's conception of philia in the EN. The author works out some differences between Aristotle's philia and Aquinas's amicitia. The author scrutinizes Aquinas's idea that caritas as love of God can be understood as friendship amicitia with God. Aquinas seems to have difficulty integrating the Aristotelian element of wishing somebody well for his or her own sake in perfect philia. Aristotelian perfect philia asserts independence from charity. A theory that attempted to take this into account would probably have to describe the relation between perfect friendship and charity not as integration but rather as coexistence.