Alan Watt argues that despite its prominence in Greek ethical theory, friendship has generally been ignored by modern ethicists and that most of the recent attempts to revive it have been Aristotelian in inspiration. Hence the the impression of straight choice between ancient and modern perspectives has actually been re-enforced by
contemporary efforts at rehabilitation.

He argues that Iwe can usefully adding a Nietzschean – perspective, which cannot be subsumed within the ancient/modern dichotomy and which offers a way of connecting friendship and ethics very different from Aristotle’s.

For whereas Aristotelianism sees ethics as a search for the good life and character friendship as contributing to the creation of a shared understanding of the good, Nietzsche sees ethics as an arena of contest between different ways of valuing and “self-overcoming”, and character friendship as a process of challenge by
which we push each other further along our own very different paths.