Friendship in light of the modern philosophical revolution

Abstract

"Modernity constitutes a completion over antiquity in the sense that it establishes the incompleteness of philosophy in a way antiquity failed to see. If Socrates represents the greatestinsights of antiquity, Kierkegaard represents the modern thinker who saw this advance the most clearly. I wish to assess Walsh’s claim with reference to friendship, the culmination of the ethical life – or existence – for the ancients. The modern philosophical revolution, with its turn toward existence, deepens our awareness of the unconditioned, personal love at the heart of existence."