On Friendship

I wrote my senior thesis on this topic, so I have a lot to say on the subject. I've recently joined an existentialist reading group and I found it interesting that Sartre thought that friendships were important too. Somehow it doesn't seem to fit with the radical choosing things. Because friends influence choices in a big way.

But I think Sartre is hearkening back to Montaigne who saw friendship as a rare and essentially philosophical relationship. He thought you were lucky if you had one true friend in your life and that friendship was the most important relationship that anyone could aspire to. Montaigne also saw a friendship as defining and an essentially non-manipulative relationship (in contrast to romantic relationships). We've inherited that idea, but I don't think it's accurate. Friendships can be very manipulative and romantic relationships can be a defining relationship (in the sense of the central relationship in a person's life that allows them to define who they are as an individual).

So, if you want to do radical choosing you need to do it by yourself or with the help of a thoughtful non-manipulative philosophical friend. Ironically, Sartre was apparently personal very manipulative. Poor Simone.

I think my existentialist reading group will involve a lot of me trying to determine why I don't stay on the boat with the existentialists and where I get off. We'll see.