Friendship in Spinoza and Aristotle: Beyond Egoism and Altruism

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Black and white image of two boys wearing matching outfits and walking on their hands.

Robert Doisneau, “Brothers” (1934).  Image courtesy of Heritage Auctions.

Mélanie Zappulla Solmsen Fellow (2025–2026)

PhD, Philosophy, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne

Friendship in Spinoza and Aristotle: Beyond Egoism and Altruism Should I love my friends more than myself, and act accordingly, or should I love myself more than anyone else? In other words, is friendship based on egoism or altruism? I will explore this question by studying Spinoza’s theory of friendship, which provides an original answer to it. I will demonstrate that Spinoza’s conception of friendship overcomes the dichotomy between egoism and altruism, and I will explain how it relates to his reading of Aristotle, even though he solves the problem in his own original way.
Mélanie Zappulla is a former student of the École Normale Supérieure (ENS) de Paris, and she got her Ph.D. in Philosophy from the Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne in 2023. Her first book, L’imitation d’autrui et l’invention de soi. Le concept d’ingenium chez Spinoza (The Imitation of Others and the Invention of the Self: The Concept of Ingenium in Spinoza), was recently published by Classiques Garnier. She has published articles and reviews in the journals Les Etudes philosophiques and the Archives de philosophie. She also co-edited a collective volume titled Les progrès de la connaissance et la conduite de la vie (XVIIe-XVIIIe siècles) that was published by the Éditions de la Sorbonne in 2024. As a Solmsen Fellow of the Institute for Research in the Humanities of the University of Wisconsin–Madison, she is currently working on a second book project titled Spinoza and the Wisdom of the Ancients: Ethics as a way of Living. 
*Events currently open only to 2025-26 fellows due to space concerns; please contact IRH at info@irh.wisc.edu to be added to a cancellation list for in-person events.*