Philia

Abstract

People relate to each other in a variety of ways: father and daughter, consumer and producer, lovers, king and subjects, professional colleagues, fellow-employees, doctor and patient, bully and victim, just to give a few examples. All of these relationships are different from each other, and all are expressed differently. Furthermore, the differences in the kinds of relationships are both socially and culturally determined, and can even vary enormously within the same culture over relatively short periods of time.

In every society there are a number of relationships (although not all) between individuals which operate on the basis of exchange of one kind or another, and just as there are many kinds of relationship, there are also many kinds of exchange.