Mothering and the Sacrifice of Self: Women and Friendship in Aristotle's <em>Nicomachean Ethics</em>

Abstract

In the Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle characterizes the perfect form friendship as that between two good persons similar to each other in the excellence of their virtue. Two problems emerge, however, in Aristotleââ¬â¢s analysis of perfect friendship. First, it appears that it is only open to men, and second, it does not seem to transcend the primary love of self that spurs all human beings to wish for their own good most of all. In this paper I argue that despite Aristotleââ¬â¢s initial characterization of perfect friendship as exclusively male and self-centered, his discussion of the mother-child relationship brings a selfless feminine form of friendship to the fore. Aristotle suggests that a motherââ¬â¢s love is the one example of unconditional love in human life. I conclude that for Aristotle the self-sacrifice of mothering is a selfless form of friendship that is higher than the ââ¬Åperfectââ¬Â friendship between two good men.