Friendship in Kallipolis

Damian Caluori (Trinity University, San Antonio, TX)

The scholarly discussion of Plato’s conception of friendship has mostly focused on one dialogue, the Lysis, where Plato considers a notion of loving friendship, which is related to that of eros, and like the latter constituted by desire. In my paper I will argue that there are good reasons to assume that for Plato eros cannot form the foundation of friendship. This does not imply, however, that there is no such thing as Platonic friendship. I shall argue that Plato has an alternative notion of friendship to offer, a notion of practical friendship. This notion is crucially not based on eros. In a practical friendship friends collectively form a whole whose parts they are. They are united by collective intentions, which result in the realization of collective projects. Accordingly, practical friendship plays an important role in Plato’s political project of the Republic. I will argue that the perfect form of a practical friendship is that of Plato’s famous philosopher rulers when they are engaged in their most important practical project, namely the ruling of  the perfectly just city of Kallipolis.