Print Email Facebook Twitter Using Aristotle’s theory of friendship to classify online friendships: A critical counterview Title Using Aristotle’s theory of friendship to classify online friendships: A critical counterview Author Kaliarnta, S. Faculty Technology, Policy and Management Department Philosophy Department Date 2016-01-22 Abstract In a special issue of “Ethics and Information Technology” (September 2012), various philosophers have discussed the notion of online friendship. The preferred framework of analysis was Aristotle’s theory of friendship: it was argued that online friendships face many obstacles that hinder them from ever reaching the highest form of Aristotelian friendship. In this article I aim to offer a different perspective by critically analyzing the arguments these philosophers use against online friendship. I begin by isolating the most common arguments these philosophers use against online friendship and proceed to debunk them one by one by pointing out inconsistencies and fallacies in their arguments and, where needed, offering empirical findings from media and communication studies that offer a more nuanced view on online friendships. I conclude my analysis by questioning the correctness of the application of the Aristotelian theory of friendship by the critics of online friendship: in my view, the critics are applying the Aristotelian theory to online friendships in a rather narrow and limited way. Finally, I conclude my thesis by proposing that in the rapidly changing online landscape, a one-size-fits-all application of the Aristotelian theory on friendship is not sufficient to accurately judge the multitude of relationships that can exist online and that the various positive and valuable elements of online friendships should also be acknowledged and analyzed. Subject virtue ethicsAristotleonline friendshipsocial networking sitesinternetvirtual friendshipsocial mediafriendship To reference this document use: http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:9453126e-f606-4044-a8be-b2ab1ffd4d77 Publisher Springer ISSN 1388-1957 Source https://doi.org/10.1007/s10676-016-9384-2 Source Ethics and Information Technology, 2016 Part of collection Institutional Repository Document type journal article Rights (c) 2016 The Author(s)This article is published with open access at Springerlink.com Files PDF Kaliarnta_2016.pdf 334.07 KB Close viewer /islandora/object/uuid:9453126e-f606-4044-a8be-b2ab1ffd4d77/datastream/OBJ/view