The Cardinal Virtues: Fortitude
This article is based on Mortimer Adler’s article on “Courage” in The Great Ideas.
Definition of Fortitude (Courage)
Fortitude is firmness when facing difficulties in carrying out one’s duty. It is directly tied to a courageous act in known danger, towards a noble ideal.
Similar virtues: Courage, Bravery
Associated Vices: Sloth, Cowardice
If there is one virtue that separates the heroes of the great epics from the average character, it is fortitude. The courage to stand up for one’s family, defend one’s city, or die for one’s values, is considered the heroic ideal. Fortitude is separated from the other virtues in that it is in relation to pain, not just pleasure. The willingness to accept pain, or even death, for the sake of others is the greatest love that a man can show.
The Extremes
When Aristotle addresses the virtues in the Nicomachean Ethics, everything is in relation to moderation, in that any virtue taken to an excess or deficiency becomes a vice. Only in seeking moderation, does one find virtue. Fortitude is no different.
Excessive fortitude will lead to a recklessness, even in the face of danger. The reckless person may act courageously, but they will make poor choices. This lack of prudence means they willfully accept unnecessary risk and the hazards that accompany it, which will eventually catch up with the person, leaving them to deal with the consequences of their reckless decision. A famous proverb from aviation says: “There are old pilots and there are bold pilots, but there are no old bold pilots.”
The opposite extreme from recklessness is cowardice. Cowardice results from the excessive avoidance of pain, which is directly tied to a lack of confidence. The confident hero knows their ability and the danger they are in, but the coward is the one of faint heart and excessive fear. The coward is the antihero, the one unwilling to do their duty in the face of fear.
In this sense, fortitude is not just the action, but also the knowledge of danger behind the action. For instance, ignorance does not equal courage. If someone does not know the danger, but chooses the correct action, their choice was not the result of virtue. There is a distinction in the fact that the virtuous hero knows the danger and they are still willing to accept the risk for the noble cause.
Pain vs. Pleasure
Fortitude is distinct from the other virtues in that it is tied to pain. Temperance, Justice, and Prudence are all about forsaking pleasure or personal interest for the sake of virtue. Courage is a different idea all together. The fear of pain is far more difficult to manage than the denial of pleasure. Fear is one of those primal instincts that can only be addressed by exposure.
Behavioral psychology tells us that one cannot overcome their fears by avoiding them. Only through exposure can we face our fears and conquer this emotion. This is one of the great failures of the modern West. We have attempted to shelter children from minor discomforts, from dangers on a playground to bullies. Unfortunately, by avoiding any danger in their lives, this generation of kids has no resilience to face the real consequences of an adult life and no confidence that results from conquering their personal fear. The is similar to the idea expressed by G.K. Chesterton: “Fairy tales do not tell children the dragons exist. Children already know that dragons exist. Fairy tales tell children the dragons can be killed.” In the same way, facing dangerous situations does not teach children that there is no danger, it teaches them that they are capable of overcoming their fear and facing the world.
It should be noted that the idea of pain is not just physical. In the Great Books, we will start out with the warriors of Greece exercising their fortitude on the beaches of Troy, yet in the political arena, the pain felt by the heroes is often more threatening.
Cultural acceptance is one of the strongest identities that we feel as humans, and the fear of being socially excluded paralyzes many with fear. If you gave a father the option between facing physical threats for just themselves or their actions affecting their kids, most men would gladly choose the battlefield. Yet that is not where most of us will ever have to display courage. It is the everyday decisions, from school curriculum to social media, that require the courageous action.
Associated Vices
The two associated vices for Fortitude are Cowardice & Sloth.
Cowardice: Unwillingness to face challenges.
Sloth: Indifference to one’s duties.
As stated above, fortitude is a combination of both the action and the end goal. The coward is the one unwilling face the challenges of their duties. There is an understanding; however, that cowardice on the part of one party passes the consequence to another. In that sense, the war started by the actions of Paris in the Iliad, will ultimately be borne by the women and children of Troy as they are led off into slavery, not to mention the death of Paris’ brothers and fellow warriors. A coward’s unwillingness to do their duty will always be borne by others.
Similarly, sloth is one of the most detestable of vices. In Homer’s Odyssey, the suitors who were consuming Odysseus’s food, courting his wife, and dispatching his son are one of the classic examples of sloth. They had no virtue in that they hoped to take something that they had not earned, indifferent to their duty to the warriors that had gone off to war.
The End Goal
The final aspect of fortitude is the end goal. Courage is virtuous when it is tied to a noble ideal. As we’ve seen, an action that is ignorant of consequences does not mean that an individual is courageous. Similarly, someone acting out of compulsion is not the same as being courageous. In fact, courage is often in the face of compulsion.
It is through the end goal that fortitude is connected to the other virtues, prudence, temperance, and justice. The prudent hero will exercise courage for the proper aims, seeking justice for others and exercising temperance in their lives. Both Plato and Aristotle criticized Crete and Sparta for making courage in war their primary virtue. In doing so, the entire culture became a war machine, in that one could not achieve notoriety unless it came at the end of the spear. This resulted in the most famous military culture in all of history, illustrated by the notorious battle at Thermopylae, where every member of society trained for their role in the war machine, from the earliest age. The Spartans were courageous by all accounts, extreme in their discipline and temperance, but few would describe the Spartan warrior as the prudent, wholly virtuous man.
Fortitude is virtuous when it strikes that balance between courage that is still rooted in the noble ideal. From the honorable Hector to Atticus Finch, the courageous hero is the one willing to defend those around them, to overcome their personal fear, and still perform their noble duty at the expense of their comfort or even their life.