Institut Ramon LLull

The classics long pointed out that nobody wants to live a friendless life. Ever since, the aspiration for the good life and friendship as a virtuous form of relationship have jointly created a tradition which continues today in series, cinema, and self-help guides alike: Gilgamesh, Aristotle, Montaigne, Simone Weil, Steven Spielberg or even Facebook likes have historically contributed to defining an authentic model of friendship. This book sets out on a suspicion: what lingers behind this ideal? How has it managed to remain stable for all this time? To whom is it addressed and who is left out? Can it help us to understand the meaning, pain, and fears that cross our relationships?

In fact, friendship is the sole stable social bond for which no institution has been created. There are no registration forms, nor do we sign any laws or contracts in order to be friends. Friendship resists descriptions, protocols, and attempts to control it; it is tangent of freedom which opens up an undefined space. Marina Garcés, the most read and globally translated philosopher writing in Catalan, explores the nature of friendship and sketches out a possible counter-definition: the passion of strangers.