Abstract

In recent years, scholars have become wary of moralized accounts of love and friendship. They contend that these accounts distort the goods of special relationships and obscure the sui generis value inherent in these activities. Since the goods of friendship, these authors argue, lay outside the scope of the moral, it stands to reason that the pursuit and sustainment of friendships can lead one into moral danger. This paper asks whether we might understand friendship as inherently moral without committing the sin of moralization. I suggest that within an Aristotelian virtue ethical framework, friendship, specifically “true and good” friendship, is inextricably linked with the moral. Therefore, true friends are those who lead us out of moral danger.