Making at-work

In Book XI, Aristotle discusses friendship. I see a strong connection between friendship and happiness (eudaimonia), the latter of which he says is the best way of being-at-work, with the apparent additional need of external goods (1099a 30-34). He compares friendship to artisanship in that a true friend does good things for the other, in which case the other is the friend's work, as an artisan does good things for his art, in which case the art is the artisan's work (1168a 3-5). The connection that I see between friendship and happiness (eudaimonia) consists in the notions of being and making. Friendship seems to be a requisite for happiness because it reflects one's being-at-work in accordance with virtue, or in some way acts as the medium for being-at-work.

My idea that friendship is a requisite for happiness for Aristotle is derived from his explanation of friendship as it relates to being-at-work: "...we are by being-at-work (since it is by living and acting), and the work is, in a certain way, its maker at-work; so he loves the work because he also loves to be." What I find interesting about this expression is that he seems to suggest that one who is being-at-work in accordance with virtue has the power to make at-work in accordance with virtue. If I am reading Aristotle correctly, such an idea would be greatly important for understanding this notion of making as it relates to metaphysics.