Reasons for Political Friendship

• Published in: Ethical theory and moral practice 2023-07, Vol.26 (3), p.343-359
• Main Author: Hepçağlayan, Cansu
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Community; Curiosity; Democracy; Education; Ethics; Friendship; Membership; Morality; Ontology; Philosophy; Philosophy of Medicine; Polarization; Political Philosophy; Raz, Joseph; Theory of Medicine/Bioethics; United Kingdom
• ISSN: 1386-2820; 1572-8447
• DOI: 10.1007/s10677-023-10375-3

Scholarly curiosity about political friendship (the relationship of mutual care among political fellows) is increasing as liberal democracies around the world face radical polarization. Yet one worry persists: can political friendship really exist in contemporary democracies? The objective of this paper is to answer this question in the affirmative. To this end, I investigate whether members of modern polities have reasons to form friendly bonds with one another. The paper has four parts. The first establishes a fundamental desideratum that any consideration must satisfy to count as a reason for political fellows to partake in political friendship. The second evaluates and rejects a line of argument that presents bonds of mutual identification and belonging among political fellows as reasons for political friendship. The third evaluates and rejects a line of argument due to Paul Ludwig that presents the shared utility of political community as a reason for political fellows to engage in friendly practices with one another. Finally, I introduce my own novel argument—the “argument from membership”—for why political fellows have a reason to care for one another. I argue that membership in a functioning political community is indispensably valuable for any individual in virtue of playing a constitutive role in the individual’s attainment of their final ends. I hold that, as constituent parts of the same political community, political fellows have a reason to value one another and, accordingly, to care for one another’s well-being.