This examination considers the changing attitudes to friendship since antiquity and notes that almost no major modern philosopher has expounded friendship as an ideal for society.

Chapter 1 Introduction, Preston King; Chapter 2 The Role of Friendship in Aristotle's Political Theory, Richard Mulgan; Chapter 3 Hume, Smith and Ferguson: Friendship in Commercial Society, Lisa Hill, Peter McCarthy; Chapter 4 Circles, Ladders and Stars: Nietzsche on Friendship, Ruth Abbey; Chapter 5 Martin Buber and the Ontological Crisis of Modern Man, Charles Rustin; Chapter 6 Derrida and Friendship, Fred Dallmayr; Chapter 7 The Virtue of Solitude and the Vicissitudes of Friendship, HorstHutter; Chapter 8 Reviving Greco-Roman Friendship: A Bibliographical Review, HeatherDevere;