Kitap 3
23
The formidable things, therefore, in relation to which we speak of a man as brave are, we have said, those that appear likely to cause pain of the destructive kind—provided that these appear close at hand and not far off, and are or appear to be of a magnitude proportionate to a human being;
24
for some things must necessarily appear fearful to every human being and throw everybody into alarm, since it is quite possible that,just as heat and cold and some of the other forces are above us and above the conditions of the human body, so also are some mental sufferings.
24
Therefore whereas the cowardly and the daring are mistaken owing to their characters, since the coward thinks things not formidable formidable and things slightly formidable extremely formidable, and the daring man on the contrary thinks formidable things perfectly safe and extremely formidable things only slightly formidable, to the brave man on the other hand things seem exactly what they are.
25
Hence a man is not brave if he endures formidable things through ignorance (for instance, if owing to madness he were to endure a flight of thunderbolts), nor if he does so owing to passion when knowing the greatness of the danger, as the Celts take arms and march against the waves This appears to be loosely quoted from a verse passage: cf. Aristot. Nic. Eth. 1115b 25. An echo of the story survives in Shakespeare’s metaphor, to take arms against a sea of troubles. ; and in general, the courage of barbarians has an element of passion.
26
And some men endure terrors for the sake of other pleasures also—for even passion contains pleasure of a sort, since it is combined with hope of revenge. But nevertheless neither if a man endures death for the sake of this pleasure nor for another, nor for the sake of avoiding greater pains, would any of these persons justly be termed brave.
