Im Namen des Bruders: Fraternalit t in Freundschaftsdiskursen der Antike, des Mittelalters und der Frühen Neuzeit

Focusing on Aristotle’s ‘Nikomachean Ethics’, Cicero’s ‘Laelius On Friendship’, Aelred of Rievaulx’s‘On Spiritual Friendship’ and Michel de Montaigne’s ‘Essay on Friendship’, the following essayanalyses the relationship of friendship and fraternality in premodern discourses. With referenceto Jacques Derrida’s book ‘Politics of Friendship’, the essay suggests that the traditionally highlypraised intimacy between male friends is based on the marginalisation of those who cannot bebrothers because of their descent: women and strangers.