🤝📜 Cicero’s On Friendship - do we love our friends, or what they give us?
Location update: We’ll meet on the 8th floor of Vancouver Central Library, in the cafeteria/vending machine section behind the elevators. 🤝📜 Cicero’s On Friendship - do we love our friends, or what they give us? Short philosophy reading and discussion - read beforehand. Short summary Friendship is one of those words people use warmly and examine very badly. We say “my friends.” We say “community.” We say “chosen family.” We say “I’ve got people.” But what do we actually mean? Cicero’s On Friendship is old, but the question inside it is still awkwardly alive: Do we love our friends for who they are, or for what they give us? Comfort. Status. Access. Validation. Entertainment. A version of ourselves we like being around. Cicero is not writing a modern self-help essay about “finding your people.” He is asking what friendship is supposed to be when it is serious: loyalty, virtue, honesty, usefulness, affection, moral pressure, and whether a good friend should make your life easier or make you better. That’s why this one feels worth a room. Not networking. Not sentimental friendship talk. Not everyone pretending they are a perfect friend. A real conversation about what friendship is, what it costs, and how much of what we call friendship is just mutual convenience with better branding. A few questions already sitting in my head “Do we love our friends, or the version of ourselves we get to be around them?” “Can a friendship survive if it stops being useful?” “Should a real friend make you feel accepted, or tell you when you are becoming worse?” “Is loyalty still a virtue if your friend is wrong?” “What makes adult friendship so hard to maintain?” “Do we choose friends by character, chemistry, shared habits, or shared illusions?” “When does friendship become dependency?” “What would Cicero think of networking culture?” How the morning will go We’ll start with one question: “What is one thing a real friend should be allowed to tell you?” Then I’ll give a short reset on Cicero, the text, and the main argument. After that, we stay close to the reading and let the bigger fight open up: friendship, virtue, usefulness, honesty, loyalty, and whether modern people have quietly lowered the standard for friendship because the real version asks too much. Not philosophy-class stiffness. Not therapy. Not vague “community” language. A real discussion. Reading Cicero - On Friendship Also known as Laelius de Amicitia Please read beforehand. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Gfh6ECAW6eQ4Qxteye2EPRN2cp4nKR/edit?usp=drivesdk&ouid=106877739920669003491&rtpof=true&sd=true When and where 🗓️ Date: Sunday, August 2nd, 2026 🕒 Time: 11:00 AM - 1:00 PM 📍 Location: Vancouver Central Library 350 West Georgia Street, Vancouver, BC Meeting point: 8th floor, cafeteria/vending machine section, behind the elevators. Cap: 12 Small room on purpose so people can actually push back and be heard. Weekend RSVP policy Our weekend events regularly have waitlists of 20 or more people. If you can no longer attend, please update your RSVP by Thursday evening. This gives someone on the waitlist enough time to make plans and take the available spot. Members who remain marked as attending and miss two events without cancelling may be removed from the group. Emergencies happen; if something unavoidable comes up, please message the organizer. Keeping your RSVP accurate helps limited seats go to people who can actually attend.
