Bravery and Temperance Outline

Conclusion:

Both bravery and temperance are achieved through right reason and choice.

Premises:

EP₁. Bravery is having the courage or confidence to stand firm in the face of fear. (40)

EP₂. Man fears all bad things but we cannot be brave in all circumstances of fear. (40)

A.     Man cannot be brave in the face of bad grades, break ups and death. (40)

B.     Man can be brave in the face of death only in certain occasions such as war. (41)

EP₃. Bravery is something that happens event to event we are not always brave but rather brave when we need to be. (41).

A.     Man needs to be in the right place at the right time.  (41)

B.     Man needs to have the right reason for his actions for them to be considered brave. (41)

IP₄. Bravery is very circumstantial.

IP₅. To be brave both your end and your mean must be done for good

EP₆. A rash person is someone who is overly confident in the face of fear. (42)

A.     A rash person is someone that goes looking for the fight. (42)

B.     A Brave person is some who is brave when the fight comes to him. (42)

EP₇. A Coward is someone who is afraid more times than not. (42)

A.     This person fears things that are not seen as frightening by the public. (42)

EP₈. Training and experience do not equal bravery. (43)

A.     Professional soldiers’ training gives them the essence of bravery because they have trained for similar situations (43)

a.     When overwhelmed they tend to panic and do shameful things. (43)

B.     Citizen troops are brave because they are fighting for their homeland this means they will stand firm to protect their own. (43)

EP₉.  Sprit doesn’t bravery. (43)

A.     Emotions such as rage and passion may give the person reason to fight but they are not the reasons that are behind bravery. (43)

EP₁₀.  Hopeful people are not brave people. (44)

A.     Hope inspires people to do things by giving them a false sense of character such as strength, stealthiness, and invincibility. (44)

EP₁₁. Ignorance doesn’t equal bravery but only a person who is misinformed. (44)

EP₁₂. Bravery is something that is hard to do it involves a lot of pain. (45)

EP₁₃. The end of Bravery is honor which is pleasant but most often this pleasure is outweighed by the pain. (45)

EP₁₄. Temperance is the balance between to much pleasure and to little pleasure. (45)

EP₁₅. Temperance involves pleasure of the body or physical word. (46)

A.     Things such as colors, sounds, smells are neither Temperate or intemperate.

B.     Unless these sounds, colors, smells remind man of his appetite. (46)

a.     Therefore the smell of a fresh rain is temperate but the smell of bacon is intemperate because it triggers a desire for consumption. (46)

EP₁₆. The senses that involve temperance are touch and taste. (46)

A.     These senses are bestial. (46)

EP₁₇. Temperance and Bravery are voluntary. (48)

A.     Being a coward is a choice to turn and flea in the face of fears.

B.     Being in temperate is a choice to act on bestial pleasure such as gluttony or sex.

Virtue is possible, not necessarily because of freedom

Conclusion: 

Because it is possible to for man to act freely, ethical virtue exists and is attainable.

Premises:

EP₁. Virtue is of two types: virtue of thought and virtue of character. (18)

A.    Virtue of thought arises from teaching; therefore it requires time and experience. (18)

B.    Virtue of character is based upon habit forming. (18)

EP₂.  Virtue of character does not develop in us naturally. (18)

EP₃.  Nature allows man to acquire virtue of character through habituation. (18)

A.    Because nature grants man the capacity for them, man must acquire virtues. (18)

B.    Virtues must be activated in order to be acquired. (18)

C.    Virtues are activated through practicing them repetitively. (19)

EP₄.  A state of character arises from the repetition of similar activities. (19)

EP₅.  Differences in activities correspond to differences in states. (19)
IP₆.  Man has the option to choose right activities or wrong activities.
IP₇.  Man must perform the right activities to put himself in a good state.
IP₈.  Man must not perform the wrong activities.

EP₉.  Habituated activities should be decided upon using reason. (19)

IP₁₀.  Reason leads man to differentiate right activities from wrong activities.

EP₁₁.  Different states that arise from habituated actions are ruined by action of excess and deficiency. (20)

EP₁₂.  A mean between the excess states and deficient states exists. (20)

EP₁₃.  Man’s feeling of pleasure or pain after acting is an indication of his state. (20)

A.    Pleasure causes man to do base actions and pain causes man to abstain from fine ones. (21)

B.    Man comes to find enjoyment or pain in the right things from appropriate upbringing. (21)

IP₁₄.  Man fails to find enjoyment or pain in the right things from an unsuitable upbringing.
EP₁₅.  Virtues are concerned with actions and feelings. (21)

EP₁₆.  All feelings and actions imply either pleasure or pain. (21)

EP₁₇.  Therefore, virtue is about the feeling (whether pleasure or pain) that man feels regarding his activities. (21)

IP₁₈.  Man acknowledges his feelings because of his pleasure or pain.

EP₁₉. Ethical virtue is a condition where man does the best possible action when acknowledging his feelings regarding pleasure or pain. (21)
IP₂₀.  Ethical virtue is attainable for the man who meets this particular condition.

Happiness and Reason Argument Outline

Conclusion: The fundamental characteristic of happiness, which is the true final end, is a contemplative life.

Premises:
EP1. The end of all human action is happiness. (192)
IP1. All humans want to be happy.
EP2. Happiness is an activity. (192)
EP3. Happiness is worth seeking for its own rewards. (192)

• Nothing except for the act of seeking happiness is desirable.
• Everything else (except for happiness) is chosen with something else in mind.

EP4. A happy life is virtuous. (193)

• A virtuous life requires work.

EP5. Happiness is found in activities of virtue. (194)

• Virtuous actions perform noble and good deeds.

IP2. Men seek happiness through virtuous activities.
EP6. The highest virtue is reason. (194)

• Reason is the best quality that men possess.

EP7. Reason is the most continuously practiced activity. (194)

• Men can contemplate truth more than they can do anything else.

EP8. Reason is the most pleasing virtuous activity. (194)
EP9. Reason is philosophical wisdom. (194)
EP10. Philosophical wisdom is an activity practiced for its own sake (194).
IP3. Men get pleasure from being philosophically wise.
EP11. Philosophical wisdom leads to the total happiness of man. (195)
EP12. Man's life, if according to reason, is the happiest and therefore the most desirable. (196)

• The most suitable thing in man's life is also the best thing.

EP13. If man uses reason, reason is man. (196)
EP14. If reason is man, life is at its absolute happiest for man. (196)