On Being Equal as Friends

Many people consider friendship to be the paradigm of egalitarian relationships. We relate to our friends as equals, unlike how we relate to our parents, children, mentors, etc. However, little has been said about what this friendship equality exactly amounts to. In my project, "Equal as Friends", I discuss exactly how we should understand this equality. According to my account, friendship equality should be analyzed as equal bargaining power with respect to making decisions in the context of the friendship.

In my discussion of this account, I explain why the voluntary nature of friendship requires a minimal equality in bargaining power. I also discuss some interesting normative implications on relationship ethics that are natural extensions of my account.

Yiran Hua
https://www.utsc.utoronto.ca/philosophy/person/yiran-hua
Post-Doctoral Fellow, Instructor
Centre for Ethics
University of Toronto

About the Speaker:

Yiran works on ethics and aesthetics. Before coming to Toronto, she was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Notre Dame’s Institute for Ethics and the Common Good. She received her doctorate from Brown University with a dissertation on "Ordinary Friendship". When doing philosophy, Yiran thinks about intimacy, love and beauty, and social/political relationships. She also has research interests in tech ethics, feminist philosophy, and Chinese philosophy. When not doing philosophy, Yiran is a creative writer.

Her paper "On being good friends with a bad person" was published in Philosophical Studies in 2025.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

This is a talk with audience Q&A presented by the University of Toronto's Centre for Ethics that is free to attend and open to the public. Free pizza and refreshments will be served at the event. Sometimes we look for each other after the talk for further discussion about the topic.

The talk will also be streamed online with live chat here.

About the Centre for Ethics (http://ethics.utoronto.ca):

The Centre for Ethics is an interdisciplinary centre aimed at advancing research and teaching in the field of ethics, broadly defined. The Centre seeks to bring together the theoretical and practical knowledge of diverse scholars, students, public servants and social leaders in order to increase understanding of the ethical dimensions of individual, social, and political life.

In pursuit of its interdisciplinary mission, the Centre fosters lines of inquiry such as (1) foundations of ethics, which encompasses the history of ethics and core concepts in the philosophical study of ethics; (2) ethics in action, which relates theory to practice in key domains of social life, including bioethics, business ethics, and ethics in the public sphere; and (3) ethics in translation, which draws upon the rich multiculturalism of the City of Toronto and addresses the ethics of multicultural societies, ethical discourse across religious and cultural boundaries, and the ethics of international society.

The Ethics of A.I. Lab at the Centre For Ethics recently appeared on a list of 10 organizations leading the way in ethical A.I.: https://ocean.sagepub.com/blog/10-organizations-leading-the-way-in-ethical-ai