Friendship and Loneliness: What Does It Mean to Be a Friend with Oneself?

• In Event: Friendship, Loneliness, and the Philosophical Life

Abstract

The “epidemic of loneliness” is becoming a hallmark of twenty-first century life. The implications of loneliness are consequential to everything from healthcare to spiritual life. Apart from a handful of think-pieces and the 2018 establishment of a Minister for Loneliness in the UK, loneliness has not emerged as an area of specialized interest in political science. Nevertheless, this paper argues that loneliness ought to be considered as an inherently political phenomenon. In an effort to articulate this connection, I consider the problem of loneliness alongside Aristotle’s account of friendship in the Nicomachean Ethics. Here, I argue that friendship includes one’s disposition towards oneself and the lack of such a friendly disposition paves the way for internal strife and a loss of self-knowledge. It is this loss that, when compounded amongst whole communities of persons, creates an environment easily primed for an epidemic of loneliness. Thus, we must reckon with both internal and external forms of friendship in an effort to alleviate the conditions for loneliness. That is, we must again become friends to ourselves so that we might begin to form lasting meaningful attachments to others.

Author

• Holly Elizabeth Ching, University of Wisconsin-Madison