Defining Courage- 2nd Installment (#6)

Link to 1st Installment: http://cophilosophy.blogspot.com/2017/11/defining-courage-1st-installment-6.html

My first installment, “Defining Courage- 1^st Installment,” mostly described a few attributes about what courage is and what it really means to be courageous. It was specifically written about the following attributes: feeling fear, following your heart, expanding your horizons and letting go of the familiar, and facing suffering with dignity or faith. This second installment will be tying together a lot of things we have talked about in class. We have spoken about many philosophers throughout the semester, but I have chosen a couple to talk about in this post.

 Plato writes about courage as one of his virtues in “The Republic” and believes it is a virtue that is not difficult to find in another class. According to Plato, education and law are the reason to why courage is defined to be a kind of salvation. Plato uses the following analogy to describe how he believes education and law have to do with the definition of courage: “You know the way in which dyers first prepare the white ground and then lay on the dye of purple or of any other colour. Colours dyed in this way become fixed, and no soap or lye will ever wash them out. Now the ground is education, and the laws are the colours; and if the ground is properly laid, neither the soap of pleasure nor the lye of pain or fear will ever wash them out.” I believe he is trying to say that if there is a strong, well developed foundation, or the education, that is already set in place, then nothing will be able to affect that foundation, or ruin that bottom layer. Nothing will be affected if the foundation was set properly in the first place. He is basically saying that no matter how scary something may seem or sound, it is real courage when you do not let that “soap of pleasure” or “lye of pain” affect you. No matter what that negative thing is, you must not let it affect your core principles and what you believe.

Aristotle’s assertion is that his audience “must already have begun to cultivate the virtues need not be taken to mean that no reasons can be found for being courageous, just, and generous.” He believed that people would need to have certain assumptions about what the case is before making any kind of progress. I agree with what he is saying in the sense of you knowing what it is you are being courageous about in the first place. As I mentioned in my first installment, “The ideal man bears the accidents of life with dignity and grace, making the best of circumstances” (Aristotle). I think he speaks about “accidents” as in the situations that would test your courage and that you should approach courage with dignity and grace. Do not let it affect you and do not be discouraged by these certain situations. According to Aristotle, you should pick yourself back up and keep going because these “accidents” will happen whether we want them to happen or not. They are things that happen out of our hands and are unexpected. The true test is whether we can combat these situations with courage by having dignity and grace. Grace is defined as the quality or state of being thoughtful or grateful. Aristotle was saying to accept these challenges and be thankful that they came your way. It gives you a chance to power through, which can be defined as an attribute of courage. By being thankful throughout those tough times, you are being courageous and accepting challenges that may be far beyond you.  Aristotle also mentioned that “We must experience these activities not as burdensome constraints, but as noble, worthwhile, and enjoyable in themselves.” Not only do we accept those hard challenges and fight through them, we should also enjoy them. As Aristotle believes, it is not that we have no fear, but that we have courage. We know when we are scared of certain things sometimes, but we tend to go for them anyway.

In conclusion, courage can be thought of in many ways and defined in many ways and attributes. The only definition to courage is the one you choose to be the definition you want to live by. It is something that can be thought of mentally or physically, and most of the time it is both. It is something to be thought about with your heart, but also with your brain and common sense. No matter how challenging some obstacles may get sometimes, there is no reason to stop or be brought down by them. That is the time to rise and realize that there is much more to be done about these situations.

References:

https://billsoderberg.com/excerpts-from-philosophy-texts/plato-on-wisdom-courage-and-temperance/

https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/aristotle-ethics/#TraVirSke

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/grace

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