ἀνδρία] In the chapter on this virtue of ‘gratitude’ in the Nic. Ethics, III 11, ἀνδρεία (as it is there written) is first defined in general terms as a virtue residing in a mean state in things that inspire confidence, or encouragement, or boldness, τὰ θαρραλέα, on the one hand, and fear on the other: its sole object and aim in choosing a course of action and encountering danger being τὸ καλόν, the right and noble as an ultimate end, because it is so, and for no other reason; which implies also the opposite, the spurning of what is base and disgraceful. This is the general notion of fortitude, the endurance of pain, labour, danger, in the pursuit of an unselfish, honourable, high and noble object, when the opposite course would be base, mean, disgraceful1. From this are then distinguished five popular notions of ‘courage’, ἀνδρεία in a narrower sense, none of which can be properly called ‘fortitude’. The first of these is political courage, the courage of a citizen, as a member of a state, and living under and directed by its laws, described in 1116 a 17—b 2. And this seems to be the view of courage which is taken here, the terms employed in each corresponding very closely, δοκοῦσι γὰρ ὑπομένειν τοὺς κινδύνους (this restricts the virtue to facing danger and gives it a narrower sense than ‘fortitude’) οἱ πολῖται διὰ τὰ ἐκ τῶν νόμων ἐπιτίμια καὶ τὰ ὀνείδη καὶ διὰ τὰς τιμάς, a 18. δἰ αἰδῶ (it is due to a sense of honour) καὶ διὰ καλοῦ ὄρεξιν, τιμῆς γάρ, καὶ φυγὴν ὀνείδους, αἰσχροῦ ὄντος, a 28. Further, one of the characteristics of this form of ἀνδρεία reappears in Eth. Eudem. III 1. 13, as belonging to political courage, μία μὲν πολιτική: αὕτη δ᾽ ἐστὶν ἡ δἰ αἰδῶ οὖσα, and another § 16, διὰ νόμον δὲ ἡ πολιτικὴ ἀνδρεία. The prominence of the military character of this virtue is likewise marked in the description both of the Ethics and Rhetoric by ὑπομένειν τοὺς κινδύνους in the one, and by ἔργων ἐν κινδύνοις § 8, and ἡ...ἐν πολέμῳ § 6, in the other; so that it seems that there is sufficient warrant for the identification of the two; the duty to the state and obedience to its laws being again made the ground of the obligation to practise this virtue.
Commentary on the Rhetoric of Aristotle. Edward Meredith Cope. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press. 1877.
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