Why virtual friendship is no genuine friendship Academic Article uri icon

abstract

  • Based on a modern reading of Aristotle's theory of friendship, we argue that virtual friendship does not qualify as genuine friendship. By 'virtual friendship' we mean the type of friendship that exists on the internet, and seldom or never is combined with real life interaction. A 'traditional friendship' is, in contrast, the type of friendship that involves substantial real life interaction, and we claim that only this type can merit the label 'genuine friendship' and thus qualify as morally valuable. The upshot of our discussion is that virtual friendship is what Aristotle might have described as a lower and less valuable form of social exchange. 2012 The Author(s).

published proceedings

  • Ethics and Information Technology

altmetric score

  • 18.25

author list (cited authors)

  • Frding, B., & Peterson, M.

citation count

  • 44

complete list of authors

  • Fröding, Barbro||Peterson, Martin

publication date

  • September 2012