The Relationship Between Friends And Types Of Friendship Philosophy Essay

Everyone has at least one best friend, some maybe even more. There are also those people who are just friends and also arch enemies. People may think that just because they are your friends means that they are your best friend. The thing is, even though they are your friend, the relationship between a best friend and a friend is different. Either way regardless of arch enemies, friends or best friends, there are not many ways to compare any of these different types of friends, but you can easily contrast them from one another.

Arch enemies often know more about each other than two friends. It is thrown out there that just because they are my good friend; they are also my best friend. In a comparison of personal relationships, friendship is considered to be closer than association, although a wide range of degrees of intimacy exists in friendships, archenemies, and associations. Friendship and association can be thought of as spanning across the same continuum. The study of friendship is included in the fields of sociology, social psychology, anthropology, philosophy, and zoology. Even animals have familiars! Various academic theories of friendship have been proposed, among which are social exchange theory, equity theory, relational dialectics, and attachment styles. In Russia, one typically bestows very few people the status of “friend”. These friendships, however, make up in intensity what they lack in number. Friends are entitled to call each other by their first names alone, and to use diminutives. A customary example of polite behavior is addressing “acquaintances” by full first name plus their patronymic. These could include relationships which elsewhere would be qualified as real friendships, such as workplace relationships of long standing, or neighbors with whom one shares an occasional meal or a social drink with. Also in the Middle East and Central Asia, male friendships, while less restricted than in Russia, tend to be reserved and respectable in nature. They may use nick names and diminutive forms of their first names. In countries like India, it is believed in some parts that friendship is a form of respect, not born out of fear or superiority. Friends are people who are equal in most standards, but still respect each other regardless of their attributes or shortcomings. Most of the countries previously mentioned (Russia, Asia, and even the Middle East) and even our own nation are suffering a decline in genuine friendships. According to a study documented in the June 2006 issue of the Journal American Sociological Review, Americans are thought to be suffering a loss in the quality and quantity of close friendships since at least 1985.The study’s results state that twenty-five percent of Americans have no close confidants, and the average total number of confidants per citizen has dropped from four to two. According to the study, Americans’ dependence on family as a safety net went up from fifty-seven percent to eighty percent Americans, dependence on a partner or spouse went up from five percent to nine percent. Recent studies have found a link between fewer friendships, especially in quality, and psychological and physiological regression. In the sequence of the emotional development of the individual, friendships come after parental bonding and before the pair bonding engaged in at the approach of maturity. In the intervening period between the end of early childhood and the onset of full adulthood, friendships are often the most important relationships in the emotional life of the adolescent, and are often more intense than relationships experienced later in life.

Unfortunately making friends seems to trouble many of people. Having no friends can be emotionally damaging for all ages, from young children to full grown adults. Friendships play a key role in suicidal thoughts of girls. A study performed researchers from Purdue University found that post-secondary-education friendships, college and university last longer than the friendships before it. Children with Asperger syndrome and autism usually have some difficulty forming friendships. Socially crippling conditions like these are just one way that the social world is so difficult to thrive in. This is due to the autistic nature of some of their symptoms, which include but are not limited to preferring routine actions to change, and usually lacking good social skills. This does not mean that they are not able to form friendships, however. With time, moderation and proper instruction, they are able to form friendships after realizing their own strengths and weaknesses. These factors present more issues for the values and terms of said friendships here are some different types of friendships all to be clarified better to understand what classifies a friend.

Get Help With Your Essay

If you need assistance with writing your essay, our professional essay writing service is here to help!
Find out more about our Essay Writing Service

An acquaintance is a friend, but the sharing of emotional ties isn’t present. An example of such would be a coworker with whom you enjoy eating lunch or having coffee with, but would not look to for emotional support. Many “friends” that appear on social networking sites are generally acquaintances in real life. Best friend or the closest friend, a person with whom someone shares extremely strong interpersonal ties with as a friend. Best friend forever or bff slang used primarily in the USA by teenage and young adult women to describe a girl friend or close best friend. A blood brother or blood sister refers to people related by birth, or to a circle of friends who swear loyalty by mingling the blood of each member together. “Bro” is a slang used primarily in the USA and New Zealand by teenage and young adult men to describe a boy friend or close best friend. This term is currently used to describe the modern generation of college-age male party-goers. The name is typically associated with attention seeking males who like to get drunk and party constantly. “Sis” is slang used primarily in the USA similar to “Bro” but for women and girls. In the USA males and sometimes females often refer to each other as “buddies”. Buddies are also acquaintances that you have during certain events. The term may also refer to an online contact, such as any that can be found on some sort of messaging via the internet. A family friend is a friendship extended to family members of the friends. Close relation is developed in those societies where family setup is strong, such as Mexico. This term is usually used in sub contents. Some such as of the American sociological review view the terms as derived from a social structure or the foundation of a society. On a physiological standpoint friendship, as understood here, is a distinctively personal relationship that is grounded in a concern on the part of each friend for the welfare of the other, for the other’s sake, and that involves some degree of intimacy. As such, friendship is undoubtedly central to our lives, in part because the special concern we have for our friends must have a place within a broader set of concerns, including moral concerns, and in part because our friends can help shape who we are as persons. Given this centrality, important questions arise concerning the justification of friendship and, in this context, whether it is permissible to “trade up” when someone new comes along, as well as concerning the possibility of reconciling the demands of friendship with the demands of morality in cases in which the two seem to conflict. For this reason, love and friendship often get lumped together as a single topic; nonetheless, there are significant differences between them. As understood here, love is an evaluative attitude directed at a particular person as such, an attitude which we might take towards someone whether or not that love is reciprocated and whether or not we have an established relationship with him or her. Friendship, by contrast, is essentially a kind of relationship grounded in a particular kind of special concern each has for the other as the person he or she is; and whereas we must make conceptual room for the idea of unrequited love, but unrequited friendship is senseless.

Consequently, accounts of friendship tend to understand it not merely as a case of reciprocal love of some form together with mutual acknowledgment of this love, but as essentially involving significant interactions between the friends as being in this sense a certain kind of relationship. As there is a good side and there is a hero, there is a bad side also known as the arch enemy. It could have been someone that was a former friend that broke your trust, someone who is jealous of what you have or how you look, wants to be better than you, talk about you to people, try to get people to hate or dislike you and will try to stay clear of you or may try to fight you or may try to get you in trouble just for a laugh and would love to make and watch you cry. Putting you down or you getting hurt would make their day. They might have your number and try to prank phone call you or won’t even have your number at all. A great example of a formidable nemesis in today’s culture can be found within the classic stories of Batman and Robin and the story of Edward Nigma, also known as the Riddler. In the beginning, Edward wanted nothing more than just a friend, partner, or sidekick of Bruce Wayne, the secret identity of Batman. Bruce Wayne did not feel the same as Edward and so he pushed him away, shunned him, and even went so far as to fire him from Wayne Enterprise. Little did the infamous Mr. Wayne know that this would make this awkward scenario into a classic nemesis situation. At one time Edward idolized Bruce Wayne but he ended up despising him and wanted nothing more than to destroy him. The same can be said in many different stories throughout Batman’s colorful career in comics, cartoons, and even the live action movies that the public enjoy today. Many people don’t realize that they are witnessing a multitude of different kinds of friendships and enemies they are daily subjected to themselves.

In short, while every relationship has its own unique dimensions, they share many of the same aspects.  We as humans thrive on these relationships, some more than others, but whether it be a pair of best friends sharing a fun conversation or some archenemies exchanging witty phrases (such as in the recent Pixar hit Megamind), our society is healthiest when we have more of these relationships.

Some of the best friendships have started out as the two individuals being archenemies. Let’s take a look at Toy Story by Pixar, Woody and Buzz Light-year start out absolutely hating each other. In the end, a common goal (being taken back to their owner, Andy) brings them together and ends up creating a classic friendship. Nonetheless, questions can be raised about precisely how to distinguish romantic relationships, grounded in Eros, from relationships of friendship, grounded in phyla, insofar, as each involves significant interactions between the involved parties that stem from a kind of reciprocal love that is responsive to merit. Clearly the two differ insofar as romantic love normally has a kind of sexual involvement that friendship lacks; yet, as Thomas asks, is that enough to explain the real differences between them? It is claiming that the sexual involvement enters into romantic love in part through a passion and yearning for physical union, whereas friendship involves, instead, a desire for a more psychological identification. Yet it is not clear exactly how to understand this: precisely what kind of “psychological identification” or intimacy is characteristic of friendship? In philosophical discussions of friendship, it is common to follow Aristotle in distinguishing three kinds of friendship: friendships of pleasure, of utility, and of virtue. Although it is a bit unclear how to understand these distinctions, the basic idea seems to be that pleasure, utility, and virtue are the reasons we have in these various kinds of relationships for loving our friend. That is, I may love my friend because of the pleasure I get out of him or her, or because of the ways in which he or she is useful to me, or simply, I find him or her to have a virtuous character. Given the involvement of love in each case, all three kinds of friendship seem to involve a concern for your friend for his sake and not for your own. This raises the same in the physiological standpoint in idol friend in the Greek understanding of friendship. All these references and terms all come down to the final conclusion of friendship. Without friends and archenemies there would be nothing in this world even considerable enough for fun. The world as we know it would be in disarray. Love is closely related to friendship in that it involves strong interpersonal ties between two or more people. Being in a relationship with someone usually means you are very close and you can confide in each other. In terms of interpersonal relationships, there are two distinct types of love. Platonic love is a deep and non-romantic connection or friendship between two individuals. It is love where the sexual element does not enter. Romance: considered similar to Platonic love, but involves sexual elements. Engaging in a romantic relationship can change the dynamics of a platonic relationship. In the event of a break-up, close friends who become romantically involved may experience difficulty in successfully resuming a comfortable friendship. Friendship, as a type of interpersonal relationship, is found also among animals of higher intelligence, such as the higher mammals and some birds. People see a cat and a dog and assume they must hate each other. The truth of the matter is they can be friends in their own way, but they tend to fight when the dog wants to play and the cat doesn’t. it usually results in the cat hissing at the dog and clearly trying to claw the dog. Cross-species friendships are common between humans and domestic animals. Less common but noteworthy are friendships between an animal and another animal of a different species, such as a dog and cat. While there is an impressive body of research linking friendship and health status, the precise reasons for this connection are still far from clear. Most of the studies are large prospective studies and while there may be a correlation between the two variables researchers still don’t know if there is a cause-and-effect relationship, that good friendships actually improve health.

There are a number of theories that attempt to explain the link, including that; Good friends encourage their friends to lead more healthy lifestyles; Good friends encourage their friends to seek help and access services, when needed; Good friend enhance their friend’s coping skills in dealing with illness and other health problems; and/or Good friends actually affect physiological pathways that are protective of health. Regardless of what we think, we can clearly see that there is some ways that friends, best friends and archenemies are the same, but in the end they are clearly more different. Nonetheless we all have every single type in our lives.