Pangle, Lorraine Smith, "Friendship and Human Neediness in Plato's Lysis," Ancient Philosophy 21, no. 2 (2001), 305-23.

Excerpt:

Recent years have seen a striking resurgence of interest in the theme of friendship in classical moral philosophy. This development is but one manifestation of a broader turn in ethical and political thought. Like the current interest in identity politics, ethnicity, and group rights, the new attention given to friendship evinces a dissatisfaction with the somewhat abstract and impersonal moral concepts that have dominated much of ethical thought since the enlightenment: concepts of universal rights that have little to do with particular human beings’ roots, attachments, and affections, and concepts of duties that require acting as impartially and disinterestedly as possible.

Online:
Philosophy Documentation Center [pdf]