Note: The photograph is not available for electronic dissemination.
What is a friend? A single soul dwelling in two bodies.—Aristotle
"Desiree and Jessica," photographed by Robert Miller, exemplify the friendship for which our children long. For students and teachers, friendship is a basic part of school. Stanford University professor Nel Noddings reflects on Aristotle's concept of friendship:Aristotle wrote that the main criterion of friendship is that a friend wishes a friend well for his or her own sake. When we befriend others, we want good things for them not because those things may enhance our welfare but because they are good for our friends. Aristotle organized friendships into various categories: those motivated by common business or political purposes, those maintained by common recreational interests, and those created by mutual admiration of the other's virtue. The last was, for Aristotle, the highest form of friendship and, of course, the one most likely to endure.
