Friendship, Loneliness, and the Philosophical Life

Session Submission Type: Full Paper Panel

Session Description

This panel considers the significance of friendship for political order. What is friendship? What bearing does it have for political community and the bonds that hold it together? Are the ancient categories developed by Aristotle still relevant? Does modern pluralism make them irrelevant? Do these categories speak to the current crisis of loneliness in western democracies and that feeds political polarization?

Sub Unit

• Partner Associations / Eric Voegelin Society

Individual Presentations

• What Do We Give When We Give of Ourselves? - John F. von Heyking, Arizona State University

• Friendship and Loneliness: What Does It Mean to Be a Friend with Oneself? - Holly Elizabeth Ching, University of Wisconsin-Madison

• Return to the Cave - Thomas Wayne Holman, Princeton University

• Love and Justice from Aristotle to Abolition - Carol B Cooper, University of Houston

Chair

• James Greenaway St. Mary's University

Discussants

• James Greenaway St. Mary's University

• Steven McGuire American Council of Trustees and Alumni