Are Obligations of Friendship Role Obligations?

Abstract

Abstract Are the obligations of friendship role obligations? This chapter argues that the ways in which ‘friend’ differs from paradigmatic social roles such as ‘spouse’ or ‘daughter’ are more significant than the ways in which it is similar to them, and, thus, we ought not to understand being a friend as a social role nor ought we to understand the obligations of friendship as role obligations. In fact, to conceive of ‘friend’ as a social role would be to diminish the ways in which friendship adds value to our lives and binds us to certain other people. The significance of friendship is in part a matter of how it is constructed by the parties involved and provides a space for understanding oneself in relation to another independent of everyone else and, very importantly, apart from societal expectations and norms.