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as if they were. Of the faults that are committed one consists in fearing
what one should not, another in fearing as we should not, another in
fearing when we should not, and so on; and so too with respect to the
things that inspire confidence. The man, then, who faces and who fears
the right things and from the right motive, in the right way and from the
right time, and who feels confidence under the corresponding condi-
tions, is brave; for the brave man feels and acts according to the merits
of the case and in whatever way the rule directs. Now the end of every
activity is conformity to the corresponding state of character. This is
true, therefore, of the brave man as well as of others. But courage is
noble. Therefore the end also is noble; for each thing is defined by its
end. Therefore it is for a noble end that the brave man endures and acts
as courage directs.
Of those who go to excess he who exceeds in fearlessness has no
name (we have said previously that many states of character have no
names), but he would be a sort of madman or insensible person if he
feared nothing, neither earthquakes nor the waves, as they say the Celts
do not; while the man who exceeds in confidence about what really is
terrible is rash. The rash man, however, is also thought to be boastful
and only a pretender to courage; at all events, as the brave man is with
regard to what is terrible, so the rash man wishes to appear; and so he
imitates him in situations where he can. Hence also most of them are a
mixture of rashness and cowardice; for, while in these situations they
display confidence, they do not hold their ground against what is really
terrible. The man who exceeds in fear is a coward; for he fears both
what he ought not and as he ought not, and all the similar characteriza-
tions attach to him. He is lacking also in confidence; but he is more
conspicuous for his excess of fear in painful situations. The coward,
then, is a despairing sort of person; for he fears everything. The brave
man, on the other hand, has the opposite disposition; for confidence is
the mark of a hopeful disposition. The coward, the rash man, and the
brave man, then, are concerned with the same objects but are differently
disposed towards them; for the first two exceed and fall short, while the
third holds the middle, which is the right, position; and rash men are
precipitate, and wish for dangers beforehand but draw back when they
are in them, while brave men are keen in the moment of action, but quiet
beforehand.
As we have said, then, courage is a mean with respect to things that
46/Aristotle
inspire confidence or fear, in the circumstances that have been stated;
and it chooses or endures things because it is noble to do so, or because
it is base not to do so. But to die to escape from poverty or love or
anything painful is not the mark of a brave man, but rather of a coward;
for it is softness to fly from what is troublesome, and such a man en-
dures death not because it is noble but to fly from evil.
8
Courage, then, is something of this sort, but the name is also applied to
five other kinds.
First comes the courage of the citizen-soldier; for this is most like
true courage. Citizen-soldiers seem to face dangers because of the pen-
alties imposed by the laws and the reproaches they would otherwise
incur, and because of the honours they win by such action; and therefore
those peoples seem to be bravest among whom cowards are held in
dishonour and brave men in honour. This is the kind of courage that
Homer depicts, e.g., in Diomede and in Hector:
First will Polydamas be to heap reproach on me then; and
For Hector one day  mid the Trojans shall utter his vaulting harangue:
Afraid was Tydeides, and fled from my face.
This kind of courage is most like to that which we described earlier,
because it is due to virtue; for it is due to shame and to desire of a noble
object (i.e., honour) and avoidance of disgrace, which is ignoble. One
might rank in the same class even those who are compelled by their
rulers; but they are inferior, inasmuch as they do what they do not from
shame but from fear, and to avoid not what is disgraceful but what is
painful; for their masters compel them, as Hector does:
But if I shall spy any dastard that cowers far from the fight,
Vainly will such an one hope to escape from the dogs.
And those who give them their posts, and beat them if they retreat,
do the same, and so do those who draw them up with trenches or some-
thing of the sort behind them; all of these apply compulsion. But one
ought to be brave not under compulsion but because it is noble to be so.
(2) Experience with regard to particular facts is also thought to be
courage; this is indeed the reason why Socrates thought courage was
Nicomachean Ethics/47
knowledge. Other people exhibit this quality in other dangers, and pro-
fessional soldiers exhibit it in the dangers of war; for there seem to be
many empty alarms in war, of which these have had the most compre-
hensive experience; therefore they seem brave, because the others do
not know the nature of the facts. Again, their experience makes them
most capable in attack and in defence, since they can use their arms and
have the kind that are likely to be best both for attack and for defence;
therefore they fight like armed men against unarmed or like trained ath-
letes against amateurs; for in such contests too it is not the bravest men
that fight best, but those who are strongest and have their bodies in the
best condition. Professional soldiers turn cowards, however, when the
danger puts too great a strain on them and they are inferior in numbers
and equipment; for they are the first to fly, while citizen-forces die at
their posts, as in fact happened at the temple of Hermes. For to the latter
flight is disgraceful and death is preferable to safety on those terms;
while the former from the very beginning faced the danger on the as-
sumption that they were stronger, and when they know the facts they fly,
fearing death more than disgrace; but the brave man is not that sort of
person.
(3) Passion also is sometimes reckoned as courage; those who act
from passion, like wild beasts rushing at those who have wounded them,
are thought to be brave, because brave men also are passionate; for
passion above all things is eager to rush on danger, and hence Homer s
 put strength into his passion and  aroused their spirit and passion and
 hard he breathed panting and  his blood boiled . For all such expres-
sions seem to indicate the stirring and onset of passion. Now brave men
act for honour s sake, but passion aids them; while wild beasts act un-
der the influence of pain; for they attack because they have been wounded
or because they are afraid, since if they are in a forest they do not come [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]