Courage and justice have been two much discussed values ​​throughout the semester and in this essay I will try to connect the two together and relate the ideas according to the principles of Aristotle Nicomachean Ethics, The Iliad and The Epic of Gilgamesh. According to the dictionary, courage is defined as “the quality of mind or spirit that allows a person to face difficulty, danger, or pain without fear.” Justice is defined as “the upholding of what is right, especially fair treatment and due reward in accordance with honor, standards, or law.” Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay In the Iliad and the Epic of Gilgamesh, we saw that the definition of courage is something a little different. Generally, courage is considered the physical strength of the main characters and, similarly, their ability to kill, maim, and steal as they see fit. The value of Gilgamesh's courage is measured by how many people he has conquered and holds power over, or how many bloodthirsty monsters he has blindly slain. Achilles' courage was determined in the Iliad by his presence (or lack thereof) on the battlefield and, later, by the immense loss of life that Achilles caused. Essentially, courage, as shown in these two texts, can simply be measured by the two-dimensional actions or outcomes of the main characters with little to no analysis of context, values, or purpose. This begs the question: where does justice come into play with these two “heroes” and their perception of the definition of courage? To answer this question, Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics can provide some insight into courage and justice, and perhaps how these values ​​manifested themselves. themselves in these literary works. Regarding the reasons for our actions, whether motivated by courage or justice, Aristotle examines the two types of action, voluntary and involuntary action. Basically, voluntary action is considered to be that which we have control over, such as daily actions or life decisions, and involuntary action is that which external powers control, an example given by Aristotle is someone being swept away by wind. But, as Aristotle states, not all actions are so black and white. Aristotle introduces a third type of action, “non-voluntary,” which essentially means that someone commits an action and feels no sadness or remorse afterwards, while an involuntary action involves someone feeling extreme remorse after acting out of ignorance. to justice, I believe that non-voluntary actions equate to unjust actions, in other words, against the common good or simply against what is right and motivated by selfish desires or beliefs. Involuntary actions are also actions that are not normally associated with a huge amount of courage, because it is not considered praiseworthy to commit an unjust act. However, since courage is defined as acting in the face of an adversary, we see that non-voluntary and unjust actions do indeed equate to a certain amount of courage. For example, in the Iliad, Achilles spends much of the beginning of the epic in extreme anger towards Agamemnon, with whom he is supposed to fight on the same side. Since Achilles' anger and refusal to cooperate with Agamemnon are driven by selfish reasons and desires for power and recognition, according to Aristotle his actions are voluntary, but unjust. His actions are further unjust because he doesn't care about the benefit of his people or whether his actions are causing an.