Aristotle's Idea Of A Role Model

Since the beginning of society, bravery has been innate in everyone. From David’s fight with Goliath, to modern day’s stand against prejudice, people continue to attack in tough positions. However, cowardice is ingrained in everyone as well. People are constantly avoiding danger―physical and internal, such as Peter’s denial of Jesus and dodging responsibility. Consequently, there is a fine line between bravery and cowardice. Granted, when is the turning point where self preservation becomes a greater priority than helping others? In the epic poem, Beowulf, and the medieval romance, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Beowulf and Sir Gawain similarly show humanity’s inclination to act brave when situations become difficult, until their lives are put at risk―revealing everyone's inner cowardice.

Nelson Mandela said, “I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear” (Brainyquote.com). This means that courage is shown by someone who conquers fear, like how Odysseus in The Odyssey shows courage by facing many obstacles with his crew on their journey back to Ithaca. Odysseus from The Odyssey, by Homer, shows courage throughout his journey. Odysseus is the protagonist from The Odyssey, who was determined to return to Ithaca after the Trojan War.

Explaining what he once heard to be from Plato, O’Brien uttered that proper courage came from wisdom and nothing else. For one to be a true sublime human being, they must demonstrate wisdom, justice, temperance, and lastly courage. As for a man without wisdom cannot be courageous, something a man without courage cannot contain any of the other three virtues (wisdom, justice, or even temperance). To Plato, wisdom is simply not just knowing what is right and what must be done, but following through with it. Courage, portrayed so perfectly by Tim O’Brien, is “the endurance of the soul in spite of fear” (140). The act of bravery is a battle within itself. Bravery is not about acting upon one’s desires, but instead setting them aside and putting the needs of the people around them first. It is about humbling yourself to your best ability, no matter how much fear one may obtain. There are people who simply just do not understand what is right due to their lack of intelligence, states O’Brien. Then there are so many men who might know what is right, however, they have too much fear to build up the courage to fight for it. As fear so often overtakes one’s whole self without even true recognition, courage is acting against that (136). All throughout the war, soldiers are constantly faced with fear as fear tends to come hand in hand with death.

A courageous action most often is associated with reaching a goal or task of importance, despite the dangers even risks associated with it (“Courage”). For any specific act to be considered truly courageous it must be reasonably thought about and determined that the goal is well worth the risk or danger (“Courage”). Courage so often can be put with words such as heroic, and bravery although with courage there can be a fine line between courageous acts and plain foolishness. All this can make people believe that courage only applies to physical actions. There are two kinds of courage moral and physical in many cases they are both displayed in a single courageous act; however, bravery must come before all else, because they are associated with reaching a task of importance regardless of risk.

The definition of courage is “the quality of mind or spirit that enables a person to face difficulty, danger, pain, etc., without fear; bravery” (“courage”). Is courage valued today? If courage did not exist, then the world would not be effective. Courage fetches the preeminent decisions and the impulsive decisions out of people. Dismally, people are frightened to expose their true colors. Consequently, this negative reason hurts people. Despite the fear, some rise up to the challenge of courage. Some people practice courage in a negative way as in reckless decisions. How can one simple word have so many outcomes? The answer is human nature. Human nature is what changes things for people. Courage, true courage, is not as common. Courage should be common. Edmund Rostand, who wrote the play Cyrano de Bergerac, shows how courage is used in different ways. Through his characters named Cyrano de Bergerac, Christian de Neuvillette, Comte de Guiche and Roxane, Rostand demonstrates the different types of courage.

One good example of courage is in Homer's epic poem, “The Odyssey,” when Odysseus enters the Cyclops’ cave. In the epic poem Odysseus and his men enter the Cyclops cave and the text states “We climbed, then, briskly to the cave. But Cyclops had gone afield..." (Homer 157-158). This example demonstrates that Odysseus enters a Cyclops cave and is not fearful. Odysseus enters the cave because he sees treasure and wants to get it for him and his crew. Odysseus chooses to enter the cave even though he knew the cave was the Cyclops home and this demonstrates courage, and this is why the trait should be encouraged. Another good example of courage that sticks out is Newton Knight, who chooses to help slaves even though he lives in the south during the Civil War. In the Biography.com Editors’s article, “Newton Knight,” Knight chooses to stop fighting for the Confederate Army and goes back to his hometown to help slaves, as the text states “They saw themselves as defending the residents of Jones County from the Confederacy” (Biography.com Editors 1). Therefore, this example demonstrates that Knight chooses to fight against the Confederate Army even though he lives in Mississippi. It takes a lot of courage to go up against the Confederate Army even though he lived in the south and almost everyone was against him. It should

     When talking about happiness and goodness, there must be an important quality present. According to Aristotle, people need to practice balance and moderation in their every day lives. Achieving this middle ground, or mean, translates into being virtuous in Aristotle’s mind. If virtue is present, so is its opposite vise. For every virtue, there are two vices. One vice is excessive while the other is deficiency. Courage works as a great example because it is virtuous. The excessive vise is recklessness and the

Assertion :T​he Odyssey and The Princess Bride, courage is knowing the odds are against you and moving forward anyway. Evidence: ​The princess Bride courage quote– “IT WAS NOT, in point of fact, her Westley that was causing the commotion out front. Westley was doing all he could to simply walk straight down the incline toward the main gate without help. Ahead of him, Inigo struggled with the heavy wheelbarrow.

The topic courage is also involved in the storyline. To begin with, the meaning of courage is a person doing something that scares another or yourself. Specifically, during the parade of Jews, Liesel sees Max and calls out his name in front of all the other citizens. They both embraced each other until a soldier pulled them apart and whipped Max and Liesel. This example demonstrates Liesel at the moment was not thinking about the consequences of her actions or was even scared. But, she was then frightened when she got whipped by the Nazi soldier. Next, being courageful can make you feel powerful. An example of this is when the Mayor’s wife Ilsa fired Rosa and she gives a letter to Liesel. But, Liesel comes back to their mansion and yells at

Valor is often seen as an upside to someone’s character, but when very brave, it mistakenly leads to being brave in situations where the dispute is unfavorable. Excessive bravery leads to careless or unneeded acts, times when doing something is insane. Having too much courage results in recklessness. Courage takes over rationality, the outcome being unwise choices, which leads to consequences. In both passages the qualities of bravery leads to unnecessary risks.

Aristotle believes that there are two kinds of virtue, one being intellectual and the other being moral virtue. He states that Intellectual virtue comes from being taught meaning we’re not born with it. Moral virtue on the other hand we develop as we grow and gain an understanding of life. “The stone which by nature moves downwards cannot be habituated to move upwards, not even if one tries to train it by throwing it up ten thousand times” (N.E. II.1) Right there he is talking about how if you are designed to do one thing, it is impossible to do the opposite no matter how hard you force it. He talks about how we gain our virtues by practicing them and using them on a regular basis. That is how we learn

Excessive fearlessness and exceeding confidence, nor exceeding fear and lack of confidence (deficiency), does not make a courageous man. Aristotle talks about the courageous person, and that person acts with the awareness of the concept of honor and expresses it in a manner that is proportionate, knowing exactly what to really fear. Many different things can be frightening; one must decipher these things the greater fear from the lesser for the sake of the beautiful. (Aristotle 49, Sachs) To correctly aim at what is beautiful, one actively achieves moral virtue. The beautiful is the purest form of beauty and Aristotle states that beautiful action comes from a beautiful character and aims at beauty. Virtue aims at enduring fears and feeling confident with respect to rationality. Aristotle claims that the courageous man may fear things that not everyone feels the need to fear, but he will endure and overcome these fears and feel rationally confident.

Showing courage in the face of one’s adversity can lead to one’s growth. Adversity is defined as: “a state or instance of serious or continued difficulty or misfortune.” (Merriam Webster) The Father of Humanism, also know as Francesco Petrarca, has experienced these types of adversities and has grown from them and received triumphancy. “I have been tossed around in these parts, and this mountain, visible far and wide from

In our society today, we are mostly challenged by two questions: ‘is it right to do this or that? And ‘how should I be living in society?’(Bessant, 2009). Similar questions were greatly discussed in the history by our ancestors in their philosophical discussions. The most ancient and long-lasting literature on moral principles and ethics were described by Greek philosopher Aristotle. He had an excellent command on various subjects ranging from sciences to mathematics and philosophy. He was also a student of a famous philosopher. His most important study on ethics, personal morality and virtues is ‘The Nicomachean Ethics’, which has been greatly influencing works of literature in ethics and heavily read for centuries, is believed to be

In Book II of the Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle discusses the idea of moral virtue. Aristotle emphasized the importance of developing moral virtue as the way to achieve what is finally more important, human flourishing (eudaimonia). Aristotle makes the argument in Book II that moral virtue arises from habit—equating ethical character to a skill that is acquired through practice, such as learning a musical instrument. However in Book III, Aristotle argues that a person 's moral virtue is voluntary, as it results from many individual actions which are under his own control. Thus, Aristotle confronts us with an inherently problematic account of moral virtue.