Can a Dog Be a Human's Best Friend?

Frederick the Great—or possibly Voltaire—first made the claim that a dog is a man's best friend. This chapter answers the question whether this could be true in the context of Alexander Nehamas’ argument, which he takes from Montaigne, explaining friendship: an account based not on a single attribute or attributes—virtue for example—but on a narrative of the relationship: “And then and then…” The chapter also draws on Stanley Cavell's view that “It does not matter what one does with one's friends but that what one does, one does with one's friends. Both views are anti-foundational and contextual. Dogs are the test case for the possibility of friendship with a non-human animal because evolution has created in them the most socially competent non-human animal and a creature gifted at recognizing and, at wanting to be recognized by, humans. But what matters most in the context of the Nehamas-Cavell view of friendship is that, over the millennia, the dog has done so many different things with humans.