The Virtue of Bravery

The Virtue of Bravery

In this essay I will be describing the virtue of bravery. I will first define what

Aristotle thinks virtue is, explain the virtue of bravery, and then finally reflect this virtue

on my personal experience in the Shaw neighborhood.

Aristotle breaks down virtue into four aspects which are: a state that decides in

mean, consisting in a mean, the mean relative to us, which is defined by reference to

reason(1107a). He also states that there are two kinds of virtue: one of thought or

intellect and one of character or actions. He also states that virtue is a state of character

and is achieved by habit.

Aristotle uses several examples to define a the bravery virtue. He say that as

humans we fear all bad things such as, bad reputation, povery, sickness, friendlessness,

and death. However he says that these things do not concern a brave person. Fearing this

things are not all neccesarily bad though. Fearing something like a bad reputation is good

and shows that you are decent and properly prone to shame, unlike if you do not fear this

you have no feeling of disgrace. Someone who has no fear of this might be considered

brave by some people. However there are some things that are wrong to fear such as

poverty or sickness, things that are caused by ourselves, people who do not fear these

things are not considered brave. Sometimes someone who is not fearful of things caused

by ourselves may be considered brave when compared to someone who is cowardly in

wartime or someone faced with losing money(1115a 10-25). Aristotle also comes to the

conclusion that a brave person is only concerened with death in the finest conditions.

These kind of deaths are found in war and circumstances wh...

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firm for some time while the ignorant people if deceived and them realize or suspect

something is different they run.

In the final desciption of bravery Aristotle relates bravery to confidence and fear,

pleasure and pain. He says that a person is brave if he is in a right state about these as

appose to being in a state with inspiring confidence. He once again explains that it is

bravery when someone stands against something painful because it is harder than to stand

against something which is pleasant. However, in the end bravery seems to end and

pleasant things as appose to what surrounds it until the end.

I will end this part of the paper with a quote which I thinks sums up what Aristotle

is saying, “Hence it is not true that the active exercise of every virtue is pleasant; it is

pleasant only in so far as we attain the end.”(1117b 19-17)