During his time spent at The Academy, Aristotle based many of his philosophical teachings on the works of his instructor Plato. When Plato died, Aristotle returned to Athens where he then began his own teachings at the Lyceum, the school that he had established. In his Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle states the two different types of friendship: perfect and imperfect. Aristotle believes that the ultimate friendship anyone can acquire is perfect friendship, which leads to the wondering of how, when, and why people should obtain friends.
             Philia, the Greek word translated as "friendship" is the emotional bond between human beings, which provides the basis for all forms of relationships between people. In order for someone to fully understand perfect friendship, he/she must first know the difference between perfect and imperfect friendship. The consideration begins with the observation that the lovable falls into one of three categories: the good, the pleasant, and the useful. This, in turn, leads to imperfect friendship, friendship based exclusively on mutual utility and mutual pleasures, which in both cases are short-lived and easily dissolved. On the subject at hand, perfect friendship is "...(1) one who has the same taste as another; (2) one who wishes and does what is good, or seems so, for the sake of another..." (Warrington 196). In this case, friends love for their own sake since, unlike utility or pleasure friendships; friends love for who they are and not because of some accidental or temporary quality. Aristotle believes that perfect friendship can transpire only between two people who are each good and equal in virtue. Moreover, friendships among the good in some way incorporate the qualities of imperfect friendship, since the good are also useful and pleasurable to each other. In addition, it is "...characteristics of the good man to do good to others, and better to do good to friends than to strangers, so the good man...