This dissertation argues that it is possible to retrieve Aristotle’s conception of political friendship in a manner that is relevant for contemporary democracies. First, I offer an account of Aristotelian political friendship that can respond to various conceptual worries within both Aristotle scholarship and contemporary political philosophy regarding the coherence of an account of "friendship between strangers," that is, friendship among people who do not know each other personally. The first two chapters closely examine Aristotle's conception of political friendship as depicted in various passages in the Nicomachean Ethics and the Politics and develop a clear and robust account of Aristotelian political friendship. Chapter 1 argues for an interpretation of Aristotelian political friendship in terms of what I call the mutual-care model of friendship, as opposed to what I call the modern-narrow model which takes friendship to be a personal and intimate relation. This interpretation of friendship as a relation of mutual care thus creates the conceptual space to respond to the worries regarding the incoherence of political friendship as a concept. Chapter 2 defends the view that Aristotelian political friendship is a form of utility friendship that requires its participants to jointly commit to collectively advantageous political goals. Second, I apply the account of Aristotelian political friendship that I introduced in the first two chapters to contemporary democracies. To this end, Chapter 3 investigates whether members of contemporary democracies have reasons to participate in a relationship of mutual care with their political fellows. I argue that the primitive value of political membership constitutes a reason for every member of a democratic polity to minimally care for their political fellows qua parts of their political community. Chapter 4 examines the relationship between affective polarization and political friendship. I maintain that affective polarization undermines political friendship by concealing the ground of friendship, i.e., the perception of a joint commitment to shared political goals. I argue that political friendship can be reestablished in affectively polarized societies through systematic efforts to raise political fellows' awareness of shared political goals. / 2026-10-04T00:00:00Z

This research project explores an area which had been touched only tangentially, being a comparative analysis of the idea and interpretations of friendship which emerge from the three vernacular collections attributed to the supervision of King Alfonso X of Castile (1252-1284): namely the Marian songs Cantigas de Santa María, the law code known as the Siete Partidas and the chronicle Estoria de España. These sources have been examined by adopting a thematic approach which has highlighted the existence of categories such as spiritual, religious and political friendships, as well as other forms of amicable relationships, including those between representatives of different religious, ethnic and social groups. Additionally, this study demonstrates that there was a conscious adoption of a specific lexicon of amicitia which contributed to reinforce either the opposition or the coincidence between friendship, companionship and counsellorship. Despite the undeniable inheritance of both classical eastern and western traditions, the works of the ‘Learned’ King present a peculiar idea of friendship which was deeply affected by contemporary historical contingencies and by the political and cultural projects of a sovereign who wanted to be regarded as a friend of his people, without denying, however, the unbridgeable gap which existed between different social groups. Interestingly, even if the Alfonsine works display a complicated range of relationships which envisage clear differences, they still outline a perfectly-balanced system within which the general and untouchable rules of friendship predominated, although in some cases certain variants were allowed in order to adapt such general requirements to contemporary social and political situations.