Beautiful End

“Courage is a beautiful thing, and so its end is something beautiful as well, since each thing is determined by its end” (1115b 20).

Aristotle defines courage by addressing what it is not. In each example, Aristotle seems to be stressing the importance of both, what a person is running to and how they are getting there, as a way to determine true courage or virtue. The final destination is obviously the beautiful end being sought after and the way of getting there is the motivation or means. While citizenship may appear courageous and the means virtuous, the end to which a person seeks is compliance with the law and avoidance of consequence. Therefore, citizenship’s end is not beautiful, so citizenship itself cannot be beautiful and consequently, it cannot be courage. The same goes for Aristotle’s other examples. Spiritedness is motivated by impulse, which is in discord with reason and therefore not something beautiful. Hope is motivated by false confidence. Ignorance is in obvious opposition to courage because those who are ignorant do not even have a beautiful end to seek. So before reading this passage, I believe most of us, including myself, would have defined courage as the absence of fear in the face of danger. However, after Aristotle looks at true courage, we see that courage is actually a proportionate response to fear by facing a dangerous situation for its beautiful end. Courage “chooses something and endures it because it is a beautiful thing” (1116a 10).