[Air-l] re:e-mail destroying friendships?

K.Kyriakopoulou kk36 at ukc.ac.uk
Tue Apr 22 03:09:13 PDT 2003


Hi there!
It seems to me that the question about friendship in the electronic
environment which lacks face to face communication is closely related to the
fundamental characteristics of friendship, provided and categorised by
Aristotle. Probably the communication via email offers the possibility for
the homonoia or likemindness between the participants to be developed
(discussion of interesting issues, exchange of information of common
interest etc) , but it may also give birth to a sort of  'parrhesia' based
on the lack of face-to-face communication. The conflict that the 'parrhesia'
may cause does not -I think- necessarily indicate the termination of a
friendship, but it probably provides  the friendship -or better, the two
parts of the friendship-with a new perspective under which their
relationship may be reconsidered. Now, to what extent 'parrhesia' may lead
to the dissolution of friendship, depends on the elasticity of the ties
between the friends, and on the category of friendship -according to the
aristotelian analysis- the particular relationship belongs....or, what do
you think about?

Kind regards

Kalliopi Kyriakopoulou
PhD cand.
Dept.of Politics and IR,
University of Kent, U.K.
email: kk36 at ukc.ac.uk





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