Hope and Ignorance

In class we discussed different ways people can seem courageous (but are, in fact, not truly courageous). While reading I stumbled while trying to differentiate the case of a person who is full of hope and the case of a person who is ignorant. I want to break down each case to examine their differences.

"Nor are those who are full of hope courageous, since it is on account of having been victorious often over many people that they are confident in dangerous situations; but they are much like courageous people, since both are confident, but while courageous people are confident on account of what was said above, these people are so from believing they will be the strongest and will suffer nothing." --1117a:10
Someone is full of hope is the same as a courageous person in two ways: they each have prior victories that add to their confidence (which makes sense), and that both have confidence enough to meet their opposition. The biggest difference is that people who are full of hope believe there will be no negative consequences. To quote Dr. Davis' example, a soldier who is full of hope will flee upon seeing one of their own perish on the battlefield, because the realization comes to them that there is a possibility of death.

"Those who are ignorant also appear to be courageous, and are not far from those who are full of hope, but they are worse to the extent that they have nothing they consider worth facing." --1117a20
Aristotle goes on to talk about "those who are deceived," which one can only assume is referring to people that are ignorant. The ignorant are oblivious to certain aspects of their opposition. For example, one who is ignorant of their opponents strength will believe they have the upper hand, until they discover that they are, in fact, on par with or weaker than the opposition, and will promptly flee when this is discovered.

So, it can be said that one identifiable difference between those who are ignorant and those who are full of hope is the difference in what they are unaware of; an ignorant person is unaware of what he faces or what the strength of his opposition is, and a hopeful person is unaware of these things in relation to themselves, like being unaware of their own strength.