This article explores a particular connection between friendship and social solidarity and seeks to contribute to understanding the societal significance of non-institutionalised relationships. Commonly the benefits of friendship are assumed to accrue to friends only. But this is only part of the story. Friendship, as instantiation of intimacy and site of moral learning, is conducive to solidarity understood as felt concern for unknown others. That potentiality rests on a specific characteristic: friendship’s loose institutional anchorage. Beginning with an explanation of friendship’s institutional deficit, the article elaborates Durkheim’s ‘positive solidarity’ juxtaposed with Honneth’s recent take on solidarity. It then discusses the contribution (partial) personal relationships make to (impartial) morality, before turning to the specifics of moral learning in friendship. Finally, the article argues that although undesirable as social organising principle, friendship’s institutional deficit renders it conducive to the relational acquisition of a comprehensive understanding of solidarity.

本文探讨了友谊与社会团结之间的特殊联系，力求有助于理解非制度化关系的社会意义。通常，友谊的好处被假定为仅会累积给朋友。但这只是故事的一部分。友谊是亲密关系和道德学习场所的实例，它有助于团结，人们认为团结是对陌生人的关注。这种潜力取决于一个特定的特征：友谊的松散的制度定位。从对友谊的体制缺陷的解释开始，文章阐述了涂尔干的“积极团结”与霍内斯最近对团结的看法并列。然后讨论了（部分）人际关系对（（部分）道德）的贡献，在谈谈友谊中道德学习的细节之前。最后，文章认为，尽管友谊作为社会组织原则是不可取的，但友谊的制度性缺陷使其有利于关系获得对团结的全面理解。