Fortitude

The Greeks believed there were four cardinal virtues: Fortitude, Wisdom, Temperance and Justice. Here we consider fortitude – which is closely linked (and sometimes translated) courage. The ultimate goal in Greek ethics, remember is to build a flourishing life, both personal and in society, encapsulated by the word eudaimonia. Everything we do is profoundly teleological. But in this soul-building process we battle to bring nous (reason) to bear on the wayward passions of the soul.

Aristotle believed that virtue was not just a matter of the will. The will aligns the other elements of the soul, the passions and the intellect towards a higher end. In other words, virtue involves our desires, appetites and passions as well as our mind. The passions are by nature ignoble, but the spirit or soul (psyche) guides the passions by fortitude – so courage dwells somewhere between head and heart in order to conquer fear: “fortitude is the virtue which when faced with death, faces it fearlessly” wrote Aristotle (NE III, 6). Echoing Kant, he also said “virtue is the moral strength of the will in obeying the dictates of duty” (Anthropol. I. 10 a). And duty sometimes has to say no to the passions.

We can extend this to ourselves. Fortitude is the inner strength to keep going for some higher end when everything seems very hard. Apply this to our exams: it means getting up early to revise, trying that extra essay example, doing a little more research on the PI website and indeed keeping going even when our grades are not as good as we had hoped. Self-belief which generates staying power is all part of the perseverance plus courage which capture the virtue of fortitude.

Recall also that the virtues are learnt in three ways which helpfully all begin with E. The first E is Education or the determined pursuit of knowledge and truth, the second E is Emulation the copying of good examples of people who have stuck at it, and the third E stands for Experience. We don’t always persevere., and when we give up, or falter or cop out, then we need to think long and hard as to why we failed to stay the course, run the race. Click below to read more….

But should courage and fortitude really be classified as moral virtues? After all, the soldiers of the Third Reich and the suicide bomber both show courage but it is hardly “good courage”. Perhaps we need to modify fortitude in its meaning – it is perseverance and courage in pursuit of a good end that makes it a virtue. “Do the hard right rather than the easy wrong” is a school motto which captures this rather well.

In Ephesians Paul also likens the Christian life to a race where we endure hardship and difficulty and train hard and pummel our bodies to gain the prize which is the glorious presence of Christ finally achieved in eternal life. Again there is, like the Greeks, a higher goal that drives us forward and as we falter and perhaps feel fear at the prospect of exams, perhaps we need to keep the higher goal in mind: the good life, the wise life, the educated life, the life fulfilled and happy.

Image: The shipwreck © Peter Baron