In the history of Western thought, friendship's relationship to politics is checkered. Friendship was seen as key to understanding political life in the ancient world, but it was then ignored for centuries. Today, friendship has again become a desirable framework for political interaction. In Friendship Reconsidered, P. E. Digeser contends that our rich and varied practices of friendship multiply and moderate connections to politics. Along the way, she sets forth a series of ideals that appreciates friendship's many forms and its dynamic relationship to individuality, citizenship, political and legal institutions, and international relations. Digeser argues that, as a set of practices bearing a family resemblance to one another, friendship calls our attention to the importance of norms of friendly action and the mutual recognition of motive. Focusing on these attributes clarifies the place of self-interest and duty in friendship and points to its compatibility with the pursuit of individuality. She shows how friendship can provide islands of stability in a sea of citizen-strangers and, in a delegitimized political environment, a bridge between differences. She also explores how political and legal institutions can both undermine and promote friendship. Digeser then looks to the positive potential of international friendships, in which states mutually strive to protect the just character of one another's institutions and policies. Friendship's repertoire of motives and manifestations complicates its relationship to politics, Digeser concludes, but it can help us realize the limits and possibilities for generating new opportunities for cooperation.

About the Author
P. E. Digeser is professor of political science at the University of California, Santa Barbara. She is the author of Our Politics, Our Selves? Liberalism, Identity, and Harm (1995) and Political Forgiveness (2001), and the editor of Richard Flathman: Situated Concepts, Virtuosity Liberalism, and Opalescent Individuality (2016).

Reviews
This engaging work impressively brings together discussions about friendship in political philosophy, ethics, and international relations to create a rich and stimulating conversation about the nature, role, and value of friendship in political life. -- Catherine Lu, McGill University Friendship Reconsidered is a long-awaited, comprehensive analysis of the political theory on friendship. Academically sophisticated, it is at the same time highly accessible to a lay reader. P. E. Digeser builds on Michael Oakeshott's concept of social practice to suggest that we look at friendship, not as easily definable but as a 'family of practices.' She argues her view coherently and systematically, subjecting her argument to all the objections that could be raised and carefully refuting them in a clear yet un-dogmatic way. This is an original and important addition to the political theory on friendship. -- Heather Devere, coeditor of AMITY: The Journal of Friendship Studies Can friendship be a high ideal of liberalism? How should it fit into politics? And how can it function between states? This carefully argued and elegant book deftly guides us through these questions with great subtlety, reminding us that practices of friendship vary, even as they share a family resemblance. Digeser's compelling ideal of friendship binds people while fostering their individuality and opens up attractive possibilities for politics within and between states. -- Farid Abdel-Nour, San Diego State University This work is a valuable addition to political science collections in most college and university libraries... Highly recommended. CHOICE



Book Information
ISBN 9780231174343
Author P. E. Digeser
Format Hardback
Page Count 392
Imprint Columbia University Press
Publisher Columbia University Press