Mary Astell's theory of friendship is rich and interesting: it presents the reader with an interpretive puzzle that addresses the nature and roles of virtue and love in friendship, among other things. Recently, Jacqueline Broad and Nancy Kendrick have tackled this puzzle. Broad offers a loosely Aristotelian interpretation, and Kendrick offers an anti-Aristotelian Christian Platonist interpretation. However, neither fully discharges the apparent tensions within Astell's account, nor do they address what I take to be the most significant result of Astell's theory. I offer a third interpretation that both makes sense of Astell's account and incorporates aspects of both Broad and Kendrick's views. With this account in hand, I turn to the upshot of Astell's theory of friendship, a nascent view of relational autonomy that emerges from friendship. Astell's theory of friendship is fascinating because relational autonomy was not formally theorized until hundreds of years later.

中文翻译：

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Astell、友谊和关系自主

玛丽·阿斯特尔的友谊理论丰富而有趣：它为读者提供了一个解释性的谜题，其中涉及美德和爱情在友谊中的性质和作用等。最近，杰奎琳·布罗德和南希·肯德里克解决了这个难题。Broad 提供了一种松散的亚里士多德解释，而 Kendrick 提供了一种反亚里士多德基督教柏拉图主义的解释。然而，它们既没有完全消除 Astell 描述中明显的张力，也没有解决我认为是 Astell 理论最重要的结果。我提供了第三种解释，它既能理解 Astell 的观点，又能结合 Broad 和 Kendrick 的观点。有了这个说明，我转向阿斯特尔友谊理论的结果，从友谊中出现的关系自主的新生观点。Astell 的友谊理论令人着迷，因为直到数百年后关系自治才被正式理论化。