Division of human relationships

I divide human relationships into four kinds, according to their constitution and their end.

According to its constitution, a relationship between persons may be equal or unequal; in unequal relationships, one person must submit to another’s will.

According to its end, a relationship between persons may be autotelic, when its end is the whole good of its constituents, or heterotelic, when its end is to pursue some particular good. Heterotelic relationships are what I have previously called societies.

This yields four kinds of relationships:

1. equal autotelic: this is what I believe friendship to be; see my previous post about friendship.
2. unequal autotelic: this is the kind of submission on which I have written a post before; it exists most notably between parents and children.
3. equal heterotelic: this would be a democratic society, or a democracy for short.
4. unequal heterotelic: this would be a hierarchical society, or a hierarchy for short. As I have written, societies should be hierarchical if they own property.

I have drawn a chart of this division, and it is below.