AAP 2026 CONFERENCE

Friendship is a central relationship in our lives, and exploring the nature of friendship has been of significant philosophical interest. In the Nichomachean Ethics, Aristotle claims that “nobody would choose to live without friends even if he had all the other good things.” Aristotle accounts for three types of friendship. His account has since been reworked and built upon by numerous philosophers. The nature of the parent-child relationship has also been significantly explored by philosophers. However, analysis of parents and children as friends has been much less prevalent. While the ‘Friendship Model’ of filial obligations presupposes that parents and children can be friends, few philosophers have grappled with whether parents and children can become friends. In light of this deficit, our aim is to consider what constitutes a friendship, and whether parents and adult children can ever satisfy those conditions. Joseph Kupfer and Laurence Thomas both argue that parents and children cannot satisfy the conditions for friendship. We will argue that while not all parents and children can fit the conditions of friendship, some can.