Screw Your Courage to the Sticking Place

Why be courageous? Because, as Aristotle repeatedly points out, "it is a beautiful thing and not to do so would be a shameful thing" (1117a 17-18). Our ideas of courage, however, can often be clouded and mistaken. Whether it be taking the one who is shameless to be courageous because he seems to fear nothing, thinking the man a coward who fears "insolence from his children and wife" (1115a 22), mistaking someone who is moved by spiritedness/passion without the complete intention of courage, or believing the professional soldier to be courageous simply because he has experienced war before, we often misjudge another's intention and true disposition.

One point Aristotle makes a strong case as to the reliablity of "professional" or hired military. While the professional soldiers do have the equipment and the experience of war, they often lose their nerve and courage when the danger and threat pushes them too far and are often the first to cut ties and save themselves. The citizens, however, fight until they can no more because, to them, it is a shameful and painful thing to run. While this leans further away from courage and into spiritedness, spiritedness (passion and bravery) and courage are close.

On a side note, however, I would like to address the inquiry about coffee allowing one to be studious and, in turn, virtuous. In many ways this is exactly like the example of someone who is drunk doing nice things like helping out at an orphanage. The use of a substance to alter, especially knowingly, one's state is not virtuous because it alters what one truly is. The state is not entirely stable and it detracts from issues at hand.