Abstract

Since 1990 many studies have focused, from different perspectives, on political meanings and functions of friendship. This essay analyses the origin and the evolutions of the debate concerning political friendship, going through history of philosophy, history of ideas, and history of political thought. It aims to cast a light on different forms of political friendship. For the most part, they arise from the Aristotelian theory of friendship. Derrida's work is crucial, but the author does not consider only Politiques de l'amitié. For the Aristotelian thesis on political friendship have been recovered in many contexts. For example, it seems that liberals cope with Aristotle's conception of political friendship more than communitarians: the Aristotelian notion of civic friendship is revised by liberal thinkers.