Summary and Analysis
Book VIII:
Chapter XII - Friendship within the Family
Summary
All friendship requires some degree of association or community. Associations between fellow-citizens, fellow-voyagers, fellow-workers, fellow-tribesmen, etc., are usually built on some kind of agreement or mutual understanding pertaining to aims and duties, but friendship or love between members of a family falls into a special category and is itself divisible into several varieties, which are all ultimately developments of parental love. [There follows a discussion of the types of relationship that exist between kinsmen, e.g., brothers, parents and children, husbands and wives, which examines the origins, requirements, and obligations of these states.]