"The Republic," Plato's major philosophical work, can offer insight into the puzzles of friendship, Harvard University philosophy professor Rusty Jones suggested to attendees of the latest installment of the Sapientia Lecture Series. The discussion, rooted in a tradition of seminar-style meetings among philosophy professors that was started in 1993, featured a presentation of Jones' paper on friendship in Plato's work and a colloquium in Thornton Hall.
Plato's primary argument in the "Lysis" a dialogue concerned with the nature of friendship proposes that since friends must fulfill a need and good people are self-sufficient, good people do not have friends, according to Jones.
However, this suggestion contradicts an earlier proposition by Plato that good people are friends with other good people, Jones said.
Plato himself acknowledges the flaws in his argument in "The Republic," which include the ambiguous definition of self-sufficiency, the notion that humans are "imperfectly good" and the subsequent conclusion that friends must not necessarily fulfill a need.
"There is no compelling reason to think that friendship is incompatible with the self-sufficiency of the good," Jones said.
In order to test his argument that being a good person does not preclude one from having friends, Jones employed the gods of classical literature.
If these gods can be characterized as both morally good and self-sufficient, their ability to pursue and achieve friendship with human beings proves Plato's commitment to disproving his argument in the "Lysis," Jones said.
"The gods are already in the best possible state themselves but are nevertheless concerned to increase goodness in the world," Jones said.
The promotion of goodness among human beings is the major consequence of the gods' friendship with mortals in the classical tradition, he said.
"If the gods can enter into friendships, there is reason to think good human beings could be similarly motivated to enter into friendships," Jones said.
Jones concluded by discussing the problems with the motivation for friendship.
According to a motivational principle that is widely accepted in the field of philosophy, people should avoid doing things that threaten their happiness, he said.
Consequently, if friendship entails caring about another person's welfare, it is difficult to "see how to make one human's well-being part of our own happiness without their unhappiness detracting from ours," he said.
Philosophy professor Susan Brison moderated the discussion and presentation, which was attended mainly by professors in the philosophy department.
Brison said she was pleased to see several students also in attendance.
"Students benefit from it in terms of seeing philosophy in action," Meredith Morley, the philosophy department administrator, said.
The group discussion that followed Jones' lecture enabled faculty to engage in dialogue and propose criticism.
"It's a means for the faculty to meet and discuss current philosophical curriculum," Morley said. "It's their peer group."
There are five Sapientia lectures scheduled for the remainder of the term, including presentations by professors from Georgetown University and Franklin & Marshall College, according to the website.
"We invite speakers from around the country and the world and even some Dartmouth professors," said Brison.
Lectures belonging to the series are often used as supplementary material for philosophy classes, making sometimes obscure material more accessible to students, she said.
The series is sponsored by the Mark J. Byrne 1985 Fund in Philosophy, which has also been used to support various extracurricular offerings in the philosophy department, including a student philosophy club and journal, Morley said.
