Courage and Virtue

I found Aristotle’s discussion of courage and virtue to be very fascinating. At the beginning of Chapter 7 he says, “but the courageous person is as undaunted as a human being can be, and while such a person will be frightened even of such things as vary in magnitude, he will endure them in the way one ought and keeping them in proportion for the sake of the beautiful, since this is the end that belongs to virtue.” (1115b, 11 – pg. 49) This is what he describes as being virtuous, and I take it to mean that a courageous person faces fear even when he/she is frightened and endures them for the sake of the beautiful. That seems to be an appropriate definition, even in today’s world. We consider people courageous who face their fears – if they weren’t afraid in the first place then I do not consider it courageous because they didn’t have to overcome anything.
However, there seems to be a bit of a catch because Aristotle appears to be saying that irrational fears do not count. He says, “so one who endures or fears what one ought, for the reason one ought, as one ought, w hen one ought, and is confident in similar ways, is courageous, since the courageous person undergoes things and acts in accordance with what is worthy and in a way that is proportionate.” (1115b, 20 – pg. 49) I find this interesting because it’s delving deeper into psychological issues. For example, I am deathly afraid of spiders and to me, that is a very serious fear. However when I take a step back and look at it, I can see that most spiders cannot do any harm to me and I am a million times their size. So for me to overcome and face this fear would not be courageous in Aristotle’s opinion. Only the things that one is naturally inclined to be afraid of count towards courage.
Then again, Aristotle says you are insane if you are not afraid of anything. The rash person is a braggart if they do not show enough fear, and one who shows too much fear is a coward. (1115b, 25-30 – pg. 50) I suppose you could say these are the virtues and the vices of the courageous person. All in all, it makes sense, but there would appear to be many contingencies on which acquiring the title of courageous lie. We discussed in class that there is a mean in which a person must fall and that you do not have to be perfect, but I would still argue that according to Aristotle, it is harder than it sounds.
Aristotle concludes the chapter by saying that suicidal person can never be considered courageous. He talks about death being beautiful but it is not to be used an escape. I find this interesting as well. I think there are two groups of people who would argue on either side for suicide. Some would say it is a coward’s way out because that person didn’t have the guts (i.e. courage) to face whatever situation(s) caused him/her to feel suicidal. Others would argue that they were brave enough to take the plunge. It’s a delicate issue but I think Aristotle has said it well.