Editing Courage (section)

=== Ancient Greece ===
[[File:Plato Silanion Musei Capitolini MC1377.jpg|thumb|Plato, Musei Capitolini]]
Plato's ''[[Laches (dialogue)|Laches]]'' discusses courage, but fails to come to a satisfactory conclusion on what courage is. Many definitions of courage are offered, including:{{sfn|Walton|1986|pp=56–58}}

{{blockquote|...a man willing to remain at his post and to defend himself against the enemy without running away...{{sfn|Walton|1986|pp=56–58}}
...a sort of endurance of the soul...{{sfn|Walton|1986|pp=56–58}}
...knowledge of the grounds of fear and hope...{{sfn|Plato|1997|pp=675–86}} }}

While many definitions are given in Plato's ''Laches'', all are refuted, giving the reader a sense of Plato's argument style. ''Laches'' is an early writing of Plato's, which may be a reason he does not come to a clear conclusion. In this early writing, Plato is still developing his ideas and shows influence from his teachers like Socrates.{{sfn|Walton|1986|pp=56–58}}

In ''[[Republic (Plato)|The Republic]]'', Plato describes courage as a sort of perseverance – "preservation of the belief that has been inculcated by the law through education about what things and sorts of things are to be feared".{{sfn|Plato|1997|pp=1061–75}} Plato explains this perseverance as being able to persevere through all emotions, like suffering, pleasure, and fear.{{sfn|Plato|1997|pp=2061–75}}

As a desirable quality, courage is discussed broadly by [[Aristotle]] in the context of soldiers in battle for a noble cause. In ''[[Nicomachean Ethics]]'', where its absence is the vice of [[cowardice]] and its excess the vice of [[recklessness (psychology)|recklessness]], courage represents the mean between the two extremes.<ref>{{cite book|author=Aristotle|chapter=Nicomachean Ethics|at=1103b15-20, 1104a15-25, 1104b1-10, 1107a30-1107b5, 1108b15-35, 1109a5-15, 1115a5-1117b25, 1129b20-5, 1137a20-5, 144b5-10, 1167a20, 1177a30-b1|title=Aristotle, Translation, Introduction, and Commentary|editor-last1=Broadie|editor-first1=Sarah|translator-last=Rowe|translator-first=Christopher|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]|year=2002}}</ref>

[[Thucydides]], a {{BCE|5th century}} Greek historian, wrote, "The bravest are surely those who have the clearest vision of what is before them, glory and danger alike, and yet notwithstanding, go out to meet it."{{refn|Attributed to [[Pericles]] by {{cite book|author=Thucydides|title=History of the Peloponnesian War|title-link=History of the Peloponnesian War|at=II.40|translator-last=Zimmern|translator-first=Alfred E.}}<ref>{{cite book|last=Zimmern|first=Alfred E|title=The Greek Commonwealth: Politics and Economics in Fifth-Century Athens|year=1911|location=Oxford|publisher=Clarendon Press|page=200|url=https://archive.org/details/dli.granth.91012/page/200/mode/2up}}</ref>}}