Courage In Aristotle's Courage

Aristotle continues in chapter 3 to discuss courage. He defines courage as being somewhere in between (the mean of) fear and confidence. He says that there are things that we should fear and every human should fear, but there are also things that we should not fear. These things that we should not fear include poverty and sickness because they are not in our control. We should not have to worry about things that are not in our control. He then says the thing that we fear the most is death. Courageous people do not fear death because they know that it is out of their power. They would not care if they died nobly or suddenly. He then continues to say that not everyone is afraid of the same things except death. Someone who is courageous keep their

These people are cowards because they feel too much fear and they feel fear when the should not. Aristotle then breaks courage into five categories. These five categories are courage in the citizen, those compelled to fight, people who have knowledge and experience, the spirited, and people of good hope or high ignorance. Courage in the citizen shows that people behave because they are afraid of the law. The second is less courageous because they fear pain. The third is that some people are better in certain situations because they have more experience or more knowledge about the situation. This is not true courage because they will not be able to get over a fear that they do not have experience in. The fourth speaks about when people do something when their life is on the line or something similar to it. This is animalistic, but it could lead to doing the right thing and being a good form of courage. Lastly, these people are those who are used to winning. They are confident and do not fear danger. This does not allow them to feel fear correctly. In the next chapter, Aristotle discusses how courageous when they fight through pain and fear. The honor we feel in the end is hard to get

Someone who has pride thinks they can do great things and they are right if they have a great soul. On the other hand, there are people who think they can do great things, but they are not great souled. These people are in vain. Also, you could say that you underestimate yourself and not be able to do great things. Great souled people usually want big honors since they can do great things. This person would also want to help out alot and not want anything in return. People who are vain are ignorant because they do not know what they are truly capable of. He then talks about anger. There are people who get angry at the right situations and this is fine. Since you usually hold back your anger, it is fine to let it go in the right situations. There are also people who are hot tempered who cool off after a short period of time. If you are both, you can become bitter. This leads to them wanting revenge. It is hard to tell how angry we should be at certain situations, so we should look to be somewhere in between only getting upset at certain things and being hot tempered. Finally, Aristotle speaks about ready-wit. There are people who will do anything for a laugh and those people are buffoons. If you do not make anyone laugh, you are borish. The person with wit can step in and is in between these two. You need to know the people to know what you can say. People who are always telling jokes may say something that hurts someone.