Section 7: The motive of courage and the vices opposed to courage

The noble is the motive of courage

What is fearful is not the same for all people. But we say there are things that fearful even beyond human strength. These, then, are fearful for everyone–at least to every sensible person. But fearful things that are not beyond human strength differ in magnitude and degree, and so too do the things that inspire confidence. _[10]

Now the courageous man is as dauntless as a person can be. Therefore, while he will fear even the things that are not beyond human strength, he will face them as he should and as reason directs, and for the sake of what is noble. For nobility is the end of virtue.

But it is possible to fear things more or less, and further to fear things that are not terrible as if they were terrible. Of the faults that people commit, one consists in fearing what we should not fear, _[15] another consists in fearing as we should not, another in fearing when we should not, and so on. And this applies also with respect to the things that inspire confidence. The person, then, who faces and fears the right things, from the right motive, in the right way, and at the right time, and who also feels confidence under the right conditions, is courageous. For the brave person feels and acts according to the merits of the situation and in whatever way reason directs.

Now the end of every activity _[20] is conformity to the corresponding disposition. This is true, therefore, of the courageous person 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 courageous person endures and acts as courage directs.

Vices opposed to courage

Of those who go to excess when it comes to feelings of fear and confidence, the person who exceeds in fearlessness has no name. (We have said previously that many dispositions have _[25] no names.) But someone would be a sort of madman or insensitive person if he feared nothing, neither earthquakes nor the waves, as they say the Celts do.

The person who exceeds in confidence about what really is fearful is overconfident. The overconfident person man, however, is also thought to be boastful and only a pretender to courage. Anyway, as the courageous person is with regard to what is fearful, _[30] so the overconfident person wishes to appear. Thus he imitates the courageous person in situations where he can. Hence most overconfident people have a mixture of overconfidence and cowardice. While in some situations they display confidence, they do not hold their ground against what is really frightening.

The person who exceeds in fear is a coward. He fears both what he should not fear and in the way he should not fear, and all the similar characterizations apply to him. _[35] He is lacking also in confidence. But he is more noticeable _[1116a1] for his excess of fear in painful situations.

The coward is in a way a despairing sort of person. For he fears everything. The courageous, on the other hand, has the opposite disposition. For confidence is the mark of a hopeful disposition.

Conclusions

Thus, the coward, the overconfident person, and the courageous person are all concerned with the same feelings and situations. But each is differently disposed _[5] toward these things. For the coward and overconfident person fall short and exceed, while the courageous person holds to the middle and right position. Overconfident people are impetuous and wish for dangers beforehand but shrink back when they are actually faced with dangers. The courageous, in contrast, are keen in the moment of action, but quiet beforehand.

As we have said, then, courage is a mean _[10] with respect to things that inspire confidence or fear in the circumstances that have been stated. Courage chooses or endures things because it is noble to do so, or because it is shameful not to do so. But to die to escape from poverty or love or anything painful is not the mark of a courageous person, but rather of a coward. For to flee from difficult and painful labors marks a someone who is soft. Such a person endures death not because it is noble to do so, but to flee from something bad.