ABSTRACT
Following Plato's doctrine that love is a search for goodness, Aristotle, makes a distinction between three types of love or friendship (philia). According to him there are three objects of love - usefulness, pleasantness, and goodness. Each motivates a different kind of friendship. The first and the second types of friendship are based on self-interest of the lover, where the lover expects benefits and pleasure from the beloved, whereas in the third type of friendship, which Aristotle calls perfect friendship, the lover loves not because his beloved is useful or pleasant to him, but because of what the beloved is, by virtue of his personality. Only virtuous persons are interested in one another as persons, and not as instruments. 12 Friendship is conditioned by reciprocity and this in turn derives from rationality which exists in virtuous people. Just as Platonic lovers are in love with the Ideas, Aristotle's good men or women love the virtuous character.13 The view that only
the good deserves love was disproved later by the Christian doctrine of agape.
