Eudemian Ethics
Aristotle (384–322 BC)
Aristotle's Eudemian Ethics in the Greek text edited by Franz Susemihl, with H. Rackham's English translation.
Book 1
Section 1.1
Section 1.2
Section 1.3
Section 1.4
Section 1.5
Section 1.6
Section 1.7
Section 1.8
Book 2
Section 2.1
Section 2.2
Section 2.3
Section 2.4
Section 2.5
Section 2.6
Section 2.7
Section 2.8
Section 2.9
Section 2.10
Section 2.11
Book 3
Section 3.1
Section 3.2
Section 3.3
Section 3.4
Section 3.5
Section 3.6
Section 3.7
Book 7
Section 7.1
Section 7.2
Section 7.3
Section 7.4
Section 7.5
Section 7.6
Section 7.7
Section 7.8
The question is raised, why those who have conferred a benefit feel more affection for those who have received it than those who have received it feel for those who have conferred it; whereas justice seems to require the opposite.
One might conceive that it occurs for reasons of utility and personal benefit; for benefit is owing to one party and it is the other party’s duty to repay it. But really it is not this alone;
it is also a law of nature—activity is a more desirable thing, and there is the same relation between effect and activity as between the parties here: the person benefited is as it were the product of the benefactor. This is why even animals have the philoprogenitive instinct, which urges them to produce offspring and also to protect the offspring produced.
And in fact fathers love their children more than they are loved by them (mothers more so than fathers) and these in their turn love their children more than their parents, because activity is the greatest good. And mothers love their children more than fathers, because they think that the children are more their work;
for people estimate work by its difficulty, and in the production of a child the mother has more pain.
Such may be our decision on the subject of friendship for oneself and of friendship among more than one.