An analytical and critical view at The virtue of “courage” in Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics

“Courage” has long been considered one of the important and common moral virtues of various human societies. Over the centuries, there have been different and diverse understandings of this moral virtue, which have led to spreading and narrowing the scope of its application in relation with vices and the other concepts. This difference and diversity of understandings of this virtue can also be seen among the ancient Greek philosophers. Aristotle also discussed this moral virtue in detail in his ethical works, especially in his famous book Nicomachean Ethics. The effort to find the components of the virtue of courage in the very subtle words of Aristotle in that book leads us to the nature of courage. In this article, first we extract and express the components of the virtue of courage in Nicomachean Ethics.Then, based on the obtained components, we give an analysis of Aristotle’s general viewpoint about the nature of courage, and, finally, we evaluate Aristotle’s views in Nicomachean Ethics about the virtue of courage.