But Plato and Aristotle claim that the virtue of courage is the mean between the extremes of being brash and being cowardly. They do not think we humans are born virtuous. So they see the virtue of courage as something we must work to cultivate in ourselves. However, they would probably say that we do not usually work to cultivate being brash or being cowardly. For them, being brash and being cowardly tend to come more spontaneously to us than being courageous does. In other words, for them, there are two broad ways to miss the mark and be unvirtuous.
In Plato's dialogues known as the Republic and the Phaedrus, we learn about three parts of the human psyche: (1) the rational part, (2) the desiring part, and (3) the spirited part (Greek, "thumos" or "thymos). Courage, as just explained, is the virtue cultivated in connection with the part of the psyche known in Greek as "thumos" (or "thymos").
Stephen Mansfield's title sounds brash, to put it mildly. According to Plato and Aristotle, being brash is the bipolar opposite of being cowardly. So in the spirit of giving credit where credit is due, let's at least give Stephen Mansfield credit for a title that does not sound cowardly.
In effect, in his book Fighting for Life: Contest, Sexuality, and Consciousness (Cornell University Press, 1981), the published version of his 1979 Messenger Lectures at Cornell University, Walter J. Ong, S.J. (1912-2003), studies the psychodynamism that Plato and Aristotle both refer to as "thumos" (or "thymos"), but Ong does not happen to advert explicitly to their discussions.
Instead of referring to the Greek word "thumos" (or "thymos"), Ong settles on using the term agonistic to characterize the typical way in which this psychodynamism works. The Greek word "agon" means contest, struggle. (The extreme opposite of an agonistic spirit would be a catatonic state. In other words, clinical depression involves depression of the agonistic spirit.)
The most important contribution that Ong makes in his book-length study of male agonistic tendencies is that boys and men need to work out a specifically masculine sense of identity. Moreover, according to him, boys and men need to work out a specifically masculine sense of identity in relation to other boys and men. (Ong does not happen to advert to girls and women working out a specifically feminine sense of identity in relation to other girls and women. However, this appears to be the case for girls and women.)
Arguably, an earlier counterpart to Stephen Mansfield's book is Brian S. Hook and R. R. Reno's book Heroism and the Christian Life: Reclaiming Excellence (Westminster John Knox Press, 2000). But also see Maurice B. McNamee's compendious book Honor and the Epic Hero: A Study of the Shifting Concept of Magnanimity in Philosophy and Epic Poetry (Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1960) and Robert Faulkner's recent study The Case for Greatness: Honorable Ambition and Its Critics (Yale University Press, 2008).
But let's also note that the famous Protestant theologian Paul Tillich published a fine book titled The Courage to Be (Yale University Press, 1952) and that the conservative polemicist Harvey Mansfield in political science at HarvardUniversity published his controversial book titled Manliness (Yale University Press, 2006). For a Catholic treatment of the cardinal virtue of courage (also known as fortitude), see Josef Pieper's book The Four Cardinal Virtues: Prudence, Justice, Fortitude, Temperance (University of Notre Dame Press, 1966). (The cardinal virtue of temperance is also known as moderation.)
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