Narrations of Friendship in the History of Political Thought: Derridean Critique

From Aristotle to the contemporary philosophers, throughout the history of political thought, "friendship" has been under contemplation. While at a glance, one might find out divergence in different thinkers' approaches to the concept, Jacques Derrida believes they all are founded on a common ground, namely self-centered-ness and the emphasis on similarity rather than difference, which distort them from their ideal type. Reviewing different narrations of friendship through the history of political thought, the present study attempts to analyze and understand Derrida's standpoint. Indeed, relating friendship to freedom and responsibility, Derrida suggests it is the representative of "fraternity" in national motto during the French revolution (liberty, equality, fraternity). In his view, in socio-political sphere, we are simultaneously always confronted with "brother-friend" and "brother-enemy", and so, we need to learn how to triumph childish self-centered-ness and to recognize the self/other difference, which necessitate the willingness to offer. Friendship is readiness to gift, not only friends, but also enemies! So, all the similarity-based narrations of friendship throughout the history of political thought are distorted and unreliable.