Indulge

Temperance and courage have their root in the irrational part of our being. They are about controlling reactions, cravings and desires. Temperance has more to do with managing pleasures where courage is managing painful things. With temperance a person wants to avoid being self-indulgent toward pleasures. But what are the pleasures we are talking about? We have the capacity to be pleased and happiness depends on it so how can they cause harm? Can a person live by "If it feels good do it"?

We can divide pleasures into two categories; pleasures of the body and pleasures of the soul. We admire honor and learning. People delight in them to differing degrees. These pleasures have to do with the mind and not the body and we usually don’t consider a person who is overboard in these areas a self-indulgent person. Someone who is devastated by the loss of a business or his friends isn't considered self-indulgent either. Caring isn't considered an excess to be avoided.

Temperance must be concerned with bodily pleasures. But even some of these are exempt. Feelings, sights and sounds are neutral and aren't considered good or bad. A person who loves art or is emotional can’t really be considered self- indulgent. We all enjoy things such as sights and sounds to differing degrees. We might criticize someone for their music but the reality is that each person has his own tastes. To see beauty in art and to desire creative things our senses experience is part of the human experience and isn't an area we judge people on. Tasting a fine wine, admiring a beautiful painting or smelling flowers are the kind of things we all appreciate. This is savoring and there is nothing wrong with it.

Excesses that occur in the base appetites are what temperance is concerned with. The appetites we share with animals. Animals don't have the savoring abilities to the degree humans have them. A good smell to a lion or a dog means food. It is natural to have appetites. Sometimes when these go wrong, a person may sacrifice the ability to savor and enjoy things as a human should in order to satisfy an out of control appetite. This is the point of self-indulgence. A temperate person has the ability to savor and appreciate things appropriately. For example, he can enjoy a fine tasting gourmet dinner rather than pigging out on junk food. There is less pain involved with temperance when the craving isn't satisfied immediately.

In the next post we will dig a little deeper into these areas and will be able to say we have completed book three. Only seven more to go...

    

The Goal of Courage

People can fight with confidence due to pain and anger. This is satisfied when revenge has been exacted. Animals share this apparent courage. It isn't true courage but it appears like it. True courage is due to honor and principle and isn't as reactive. But reactive responses can make a person appear courageous. And we have stated that someone who considers himself indestructible due to experience or drunkenness isn't really brave but sanguine.

Sometimes a person might appear brave because they don’t have a realistic grasp on the danger. This person is similar to the person who feels indestructible only he thinks things are alright out of ignorance. Both kinds of courage will flee when facts to the contrary present themselves. A truly brave person will have a measure of self-discipline and acts out of calculation and principle. Reactions proceed from a person’s habits of character. Hopefully this helps distinguish between brave men and those who think they are brave.

Courage is a combination of confidence and fear but not overconfidence. It deals mainly with fear. To bear what you are fearful of takes more courage than things we are confident in. A person who is facing something painful is praised while facing things that are pleasant isn't a big deal. But courage does seek something pleasant in the future.

The end that courage is seeking is a pleasant one however. A courageous person endures the pain for a goal that is set in front of him. A boxer takes the pain of punches for the glory of a win. A person would go boldly to an interview for a job. It seems that all the virtues have this dynamic; enduring a present pain for something better in the future. This concludes courage; the next virtue we study will be temperance.

  

Upholding Honor

Courage is a term that has numerous applications. We are going to examine five of the most obvious ones. The first would be that of a soldiers and police. They have the purest form of courage. They fight to uphold law and keep people safe. Someone who does this well is considered honorable and those who back away can easily be considered cowardly.  It is the purest form because it is noble and the motive is virtuous. There are those in these positions who are just doing what they are told and to that degree they might be considered inferior. Those who are virtuous because of compulsion dilute it. Bravery should occur because a person is doing what is right not just because he is obeying orders.   

Experience can also cause a person to appear brave. If they have gone through something dangerous numerous times, the fear is less. A person who is accustomed to heights isn't showing as much bravery climbing a ladder as someone who is afraid of heights. We still look at the person who works heights as a brave person. It can be this way in battle also. A person who has made war his occupation will have an easier time charging into battle than a short timer. It will take more courage for the enlisted man to charge although they will both appear brave. It was Aristotle’s opinion that professionals will run sooner because they recognize when they are beaten and they can fight another day. Someone defending his honor and country will be more apt to fight to the death.  The professional fights because he is superior but won’t give his life to prove it.

Sometimes anger is considered courage. Those who have been hurt, fight like a wild animal. An person who wants paybacks can be confused with a brave person because they both charge into battle with passion. But passion is only an aid for a truly brave person while it is the entire motive for a pissed off person. There are other passions that might cause a person to do daring things. Those who are driven by passion will rush in without foreseeing the perils. Hunger and lust are a couple passions that will cause someone to do daring things. This seems to be a kind of courage that comes more natural and isn't as deliberate. So men who fight because they are angry or because they will get pleasure to exact revenge are more quarrelsome than brave. Their courage depends upon the intensity of the emotion rather than upholding what is honorable.  

What Makes a Muskrat Guard his Musk?

Concerning the virtue “courage” the target is to be brave. There are two extremes, one way results in being rash while the other way toward cowardice. The Celts are rumored to have no fear at all and people say they aren't affected by earthquakes or weather. There are those who we consider mad that have no fear. When a rational person is rash, it is usually because he is a coward that wants to appear courageous. They brag and tell everyone how they are going to conquer and defeat the enemy. But rash person is the first to run away when the battle gets hard. We can say a rash person is overconfident toward terrible things to make themselves look brave but really hasn't the capacity to face them.

Someone who is fearful of both the things he should and things he shouldn't is considered a coward. His lack of confidence will show up much sooner than a rash person. He doesn't try to hide it. A coward is a despairing type that is afraid of everything confrontational. 

The brave man has confidence and hope as his disposition. So we see three characteristics that concern courage, the coward, the rash and the brave. The first two fall short of the target while the brave person holds the correct position in between. A rash person is unreliable because he wishes for danger but runs when it comes. A brave person stands his ground but is quiet beforehand since he has nothing to prove.

Among things that cause confidence and fear, courage as will cause a person to do the right thing regardless of the circumstances. A brave person will do what is right and noble and doesn't care to impress anybody. He will fight to the death for a noble cause and doesn't try to escape from his troubles.   

Calculated Courage

We have looked at the things that in our power to do and the areas where we are helpless. We have power to choose virtue or vice. As either becomes a habit, it is harder to break and our choices become limited because of the character we have formed. It is like eating junk food; the more you eat the more you crave it and the less ability there is to exercise. The actions we can take that bring the most benefit to our lives are considered virtues. The things that hinder us from being happy are vices. Good and bad; evil or righteous, aren’t applicable in a strict sense since most people associate them with moral, religious, political or legal standards. We are interested in simple objective truth. A modern term for vice that might be closer would be things that suck. Virtues are the things that are cool.

Let’s examine courage, its virtue and vices.  We have stated that it is a target somewhere between fear and confidence. The fear is toward disasters and evil coming upon us. We have this expectation that something bad could happen. It is normal to fear things that realistically are disasters such as poverty, disease, disgrace, being alone and death. It is reasonable to fear these things and irrational not to fear them. Someone who doesn’t care about disgrace is considered shameful for instance. But we might call this person brave because he doesn’t care in a similar way a brave person is fearless before danger. We shouldn’t fear things that we have no power over such as poverty and disease if they aren’t a result of vice, yet we might call someone who faces these brave, but facing these things is expected of everyone. A person can also be a coward in one area such as war and yet be courageous in financial matters and be very giving. A person who fears for his family isn’t considered a coward and a man who nonchalantly takes a beating for wrongdoing isn’t considered brave but an idiot. The ultimate bravery could be facing death for a noble cause. Death being the ultimate sacrifice and the noble cause would be freedom for a nation or protecting loved ones. If the cause is escaping from a lost love or financial ruin, death becomes an act of despiration rather than courage.  Some are used to living in dangerous situations and it takes less bravery for them to face it.  Calculated courage in tough situations seems to be the criteria for bravery.

Aristotle mentions the fearlessness of the Celts in the next section as we peel back what it really means to be brave.

Cloudy?

Some say that everyone goes after what looks good to them. Whatever feels good, we do. This implies a certain helplessness. The claim is that a person has to gratify what his character demands.  The problem with this is that a person is responsible for his state and has formed his character over time. If he hasn’t power over it then no one is responsible for his own actions and is just tossed about by every wind that comes. We would have to just accept that people are born a certain way and that goodness is an endowment from birth. There would be no reason to learn anything and everyone should just give in to every whim. There could also be no virtue, nobility or anything admirable. A son of a drunkard will be a drunkard and nothing can be done to change it.

We know that even if someone has clouded judgment, there is always hope. Everyone has the ability to pull themselves out of a rut. That is why goodness is desired and admired. The virtues are voluntary although is easier for some than it is for others. Those who have formed good habits of thought through various means will see good ways to accomplish his goals. This is like an athlete who has an easier time at the sport through practice. It is much harder however, for those who are given to vice, but they do have the ability to help themselves even if it is incremental and through various means.

Virtues are the means we chose to achieve our goals combined with the state of character we form by good habits. They are according to the right rules that work for everyone such as kindness and generosity. These are referred to as natural laws. Our actions and states of character don’t come naturally. We are masters of our actions from the beginning to the end if we know the particular facts about what we are doing. The beginning of our character is under our control but through a gradual process of making bad decisions, our judgment becomes clouded. It isn’t always an immediate thing in the same way we see with physical illnesses. But since the acts are under our control all along the way, we have to consider character a voluntary thing. Next time we will look at different virtues and their details. Instead of a general term we will study specific things. First is courage.

Throwing Stones

Other than the normal uncertainties of life, we celebrate the fact that everyone has a mind, a will and the ability to act. Humans beget actions as we beget children so we should take responsibility for actions in the same way we take care of children. Individuals and legislatures alike work toward making them turn out well using punishment for wrongdoing and reward for doing well. There is no point in punishment for things that come natural such as emotions and hunger. This is also true for ignorance but sometimes ignorance is a choice too. A drunk driver causes rage if he ignores safe driving due to intoxication. Getting drunk was a deliberate act. There are also courtesies and basic laws that everyone is expected to know. Someone who should know basic things or is careless is responsible for his wrongdoing.

Some people are just lazy and don’t care. But not caring is never an excuse since there was a point that they did know the right principles but abandoned them. Character is formed by the activities exercised in each area of life. And as good character is practiced, it becomes easier. We see this with athletes and in health also. To say that habits don’t affect how we react to things is the mark of a senseless person. Everyone wants to be good and do well and it is irrational to think otherwise. Someone who knows what is right but purposely violates the right principles we consider responsible for his actions. We cannot say that by wishing he did right gives him a pass. It is his own fault if person who is ill becomes that way because he ignored his doctor’s orders.  This person had a chance to become well but threw it away and like a stone after it is thrown, the actions cannot be retrieved.  The ramifications are there and this person shouldn't suddenly declare he was a victim.   

We see that the principles concerning the soul mirror those of the body. There is natural beauty and youth. Some look and feel the way they do due to neglect and others might have infirmities or deformities. So those who are handicapped due to defect are respected but those due to neglect are reproached. A work related injury and one due to drunkenness are looked at differently. It gets down to the fact that things that are in our own power to do are assigned blame and reward while truly involuntary things are given a pass since we consider the recipients victims.  Next time we will look at what causes people who know to do good go wrong.