In the first essay, given what you learned in this course, please share your perspective on the fate of friendship and how you believe contemporary ethics will impact it. Be sure to refer to at least three of the five following components, summarizing what you learned about the influences of these factors:

Online social media
Different abilities, disabilities
Class
Diversity
Race
Gender
Sexual Preferences
Work environment
Spirituality
Politics

For the second essay, discuss how three of the five following philosophers can be utilized to discuss issues of friendship. The emphasis here is on discussing the specific philosophies of three of the:

Cicero
Aristotle
Augustine
Aquinas
Socrates

For each essay, please cite at least one or more credible sources, such as the textbook, a newspaper, journal article, or book. Wikipedia, websites, or any similar online reference sites where the content may be authored by anyone are not considered credible sources for scholarly writing.

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Each essay should be 500-600 words in length, single spaced, and in APA format. Submit your essay in a Microsoft Word or Open Office document (freeware found on the website, Open Office(Links to an external site.)) and place it in the appropriate assignment dropbox.

Ethics of friendship

Friendship is the ability that you feel comfortable within yourself while associating with those around you. in friendship, people accept other’s flaws and share out their problems together coming up with a solution. According to Aristotle, friendships are of three kinds. We have various types of friendship, which include friendships of utility, friendships of pleasure, and friendships of good. Friendships of utility exist among people who are useful to each in various ways. This is the kind of friendship which one can rely on and share on their problems with each other without destructions and the ability to lift one when they are down. Friendships of pleasure are kinds of friendships that exist among people who spend their time as their leisure activities enjoying themselves. They only meet when they have the urge to spend their leisure time together. Friendships of good are friendships that are based on admiration and mutual respect (Percival, 2015). If respects and admiration exist among these kinds of people, then this kind of friendship s out of good. There are various levels of friendships. People do not just meet and befriends without forming a bond and interacting in various situations. People begin from strangers; at this stage, they do not know one’s characters as it is just their first time to meet. We have acquittance where they have started knowing each other, and they can help identify people they met as strangers to be friends. We also have casual friends where the friendship has grown, and people can interact and classify their friends at different kinds. Friendship has grown; people at this stage can help each other when in need, help their friends when in need and be willing to do anything for their friendship. We have intimate friends where, at this level, it’s hard to identify their friends as their family or friends. Friendship is maintained as it is always not obtained from nowhere; hence, it is a process that people have to meet and to undergo. In this paper, we have looked at kinds and levels of friendship, and we shall now look at the ethics of friendship.

The ethics of friendship is based on various factors that affect friendship in multiple ways. Among them, we have spirituality, work environment, sexual preferences, gender, race, diversity, class, different abilities, online social media, among other factors. How do these factors affect and influence friendship? In which ways do they influence? This is what we shall discuss in this assignment. Let’s start with online social media. It affects friendship in various ways. Social media is turning out to be the most significant media platform (Rawlins, 2017). People meet through online social media and grow their friendship from the grassroots level to a friendship worth celebrating. In online social media, you can meet both good and bad people. The decision to choose a good friend remains to be the right decision one can make when looking for friends. When people have their friendship through online social media, they do not only feel accepted for who they are, but they feel empowered and connected to the world around them. However, online social friendships are not always good as they have been reported to resulting in negative self-esteem among them. There is also limited privacy in friendships through online media as people may take the friendship for granted and with no value to pass the time. We shall look at how class affects friendships. We have various classes: elite class, upper-middle-class, lower-middle-class, working-class, and poor.

How do classes influence friendships? Some people consider one’s class when determining whether to be friends with them. It’s not the right decision to look at class because it is never one’s wished to belong to a particular class. People make friendships together with other people with whom they belong to the same class. The elite and the upper class tend to build friendships among them, tend to forget the people who are of a lower class (Rawlins, 2017). Friendship is all about lifting each other and making the right decisions. It doesn’t matter in the class, but people should interact despite their classes. The poor should not be neglected because of their social status; instead, they should be helped so that they feel encouraged and empowered. We shall now look at gender. How does gender influence friendship? Gender is of two types, male and female. Some gender finds it out challenging to share their problems with other genders hence the need to interact and sharing problems and working out friendships. Some friendships due to gender results in marriages, therefore, encouraging the need and urge of friendships through gender. Male friendship is said to be more of casual friendship while the other one, female friendship, is said to be intimate and personal. Males tend to value relationships, which includes shared activities and less intimate and transactional. There is a gender difference in how our friends influence our behavior. Peer influence also affects how gender influences friendships, as many people find it difficult to choose their male and female friends. Some people do it due to peer pressure and weight from other people. Work environment influences friendship because you have to choose friends from your workplace since it is essential for various purposes such as communication, updates, avoiding loneliness in workplaces, among other factors.

On the first page, we discussed friendship according to Aristotle, where we saw that friendship is based on three kinds which are: the friendship of utility, a friendship of pleasure and friendship of good and elaborated on this. We shall now look at friendship, according to another philosopher like Cicero. Cicero writes on finding, keeping, and appreciating friends who value our friendship whenever you are with them. According to the philosopher, we have various kinds of friendships as there many good people who come into our lives with intentions that are not bad and plans that are encouraging and of caring (Mews, 2017). He instead classifies that there is a difference between those kinds of friendships, which are common and others which are quite useful. The philosopher says that only good people can be real friends. One’s character describes how you impact yourself on other people. You can’t have a bad attitude and be a true friend to someone. Your style defines you. When choosing friends, look for friends who are caring. It is essential to have friends whom you can rely on whenever you are in need. Friends should have a good impact on you by making you a better person. your friends should be able to make you a better person and transform you from your step which you are into another level, which is of a significant and significant impact.

References

Percival, G. (2015). Aristotle on friendship. Cambridge University Press.

Mews, C. J. (2014). Cicero on friendship. In friendship (pp. 81-88). Routledge.

Rawlins, W. (2017). Friendship matters. Routledge.