Friday, December 25, 2015

Friendship and Capitalism

Aristotle discerns elements of Friendship in each of three types of constitution, what he calls 'Monarchy', 'Aristocracy', and 'Timocracy', but lacking in three corresponding "perversions" of each--'Tyranny', 'Oligarchy', and 'Democracy', respectively.  But, though he briefly alludes to the role of Wealth in an Oligarchy, he does not address whether or not Plutocracy entails Friendship.  Regardless, it is easy to deduce that it does not.  For, the latter entails action that benefits another, whereas, one exemplification of the former, Capitalism, explicitly excludes such an end as motivation.

No comments:

Post a Comment