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by which they are produced, and that they are in our power and
voluntary,
and act as the right rule prescribes. But actions and states of
character
are not voluntary in the same way; for we are masters of our actions
from the beginning right to the end, if we know the particular facts,
but though we control the beginning of our states of character the
gradual progress is not obvious any more than it is in illnesses;
because it was in our power, however, to act in this way or not in
this way, therefore the states are voluntary.
Let us take up the several virtues, however, and say which they are
and what sort of things they are concerned with and how they are
concerned
with them; at the same time it will become plain how many they are.
And first let us speak of courage.
6
That it is a mean with regard to feelings of fear and confidence has
already been made evident; and plainly the things we fear are terrible
things, and these are, to speak without qualification, evils; for
which reason people even define fear as expectation of evil. Now we
fear all evils, e.g. disgrace, poverty, disease, friendlessness, death,
but the brave man is not thought to be concerned with all; for to
fear some things is even right and noble, and it is base not to fear
them- e.g. disgrace; he who fears this is good and modest, and he
who does not is shameless. He is, however, by some people called brave,
by a transference of the word to a new meaning; for he has in him
something which is like the brave man, since the brave man also is
a fearless person. Poverty and disease we perhaps ought not to fear,
nor in general the things that do not proceed from vice and are not
due to a man himself. But not even the man who is fearless of these
is brave. Yet we apply the word to him also in virtue of a similarity;
for some who in the dangers of war are cowards are liberal and are
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NICOMACHEAN ETHICS 35
confident in face of the loss of money. Nor is a man a coward if he
fears insult to his wife and children or envy or anything of the kind;
nor brave if he is confident when he is about to be flogged. With
what sort of terrible things, then, is the brave man concerned? Surely
with the greatest; for no one is more likely than he to stand his
ground against what is awe-inspiring. Now death is the most terrible
of all things; for it is the end, and nothing is thought to be any
longer either good or bad for the dead. But the brave man would not
seem to be concerned even with death in all circumstances, e.g. at
sea or in disease. In what circumstances, then? Surely in the noblest.
Now such deaths are those in battle; for these take place in the
greatest
and noblest danger. And these are correspondingly honoured in city-
states
and at the courts of monarchs. Properly, then, he will be called brave
who is fearless in face of a noble death, and of all emergencies that
involve death; and the emergencies of war are in the highest degree
of this kind. Yet at sea also, and in disease, the brave man is
fearless,
but not in the same way as the seaman; for he has given up hope of
safety, and is disliking the thought of death in this shape, while
they are hopeful because of their experience. At the same time, we
show courage in situations where there is the opportunity of showing
prowess or where death is noble; but in these forms of death neither
of these conditions is fulfilled.
7
What is terrible is not the same for all men; but we say there are
things terrible even beyond human strength. These, then, are terrible
to every one- at least to every sensible man; but the terrible things
that are not beyond human strength differ in magnitude and degree,
and so too do the things that inspire confidence. Now the brave man
is as dauntless as man may be. Therefore, while he will fear even
the things that are not beyond human strength, he will face them as
he ought and as the rule directs, for honour's sake; for this is the
end of virtue. But it is possible to fear these more, or less, and
again to fear things that are not terrible 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 conditions,
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
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NICOMACHEAN ETHICS 36
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 characterizations 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
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
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