How to Live · ages 6–9
Is brave the same as not scared?
Two people jump off the same rock. One is scared stiff, the other is not. Which one is brave?
Being brave is not the absence of being scared. It is being scared and doing the right thing anyway. Someone with no fear at all is not brave, they are just lucky.
Aristotle said courage is a middle thing. Too little and you are a coward; too much and you are reckless - dangerous to yourself and to other people. And the middle moves: what is brave for a five-year-old is nothing for a ten-year-old.
Notice how courage is always about something. Brave for what? Brave because what? ‘He was brave’ on its own is not the whole story.
Try it
Write about a small scary thing you did anyway - speaking up, apologising, going first. Where would you put it on a scale from 'safe' to 'reckless'? Then decide one slightly higher thing you could try this week. Small brave things are how brave people are built.
What do you think?
Do you think there is a right answer to this question?
Talk about it
- Can you be brave for the wrong reasons?
- Is it brave to be scared of something others find easy?
- Do you have to be brave alone?
Yes, but… — the arguments people actually make
Brave people are the ones who aren't scared.
Then a person who has no idea of danger is the bravest of all, which is clearly wrong. Being brave is being frightened and doing the right thing anyway.
Jumping off a high wall takes courage.
It takes nerve. Courage is always courage *for* something — and if the something is showing off, the word is doing different work.
If you're brave, you should be brave about everything.
Nobody is. Watch a brave person meet a spider, or a needle. Courage is not a tank you fill up once.
What other philosophers think
- AristotleCourage is a middle thing: too little is cowardice, too much is recklessness. And the middle moves — what is brave for a five-year-old is nothing for a ten-year-old.
- PlatoCourage is knowing what is actually worth being afraid of — so it is a kind of knowledge, not a feeling.
- The StoicsFear comes from wanting control over things that were never in your control. Courage is the habit of caring about your own choices and not about the outcome.
If you want to go further
- Nicomachean Ethics — AristotleThe 'golden mean' passage, where courage is defined by its two failures.
- Laches — PlatoA short dialogue that ends without an answer to 'what is courage?' — deliberately.
- Meditations — Marcus AureliusA notebook of someone practising courage daily, badly, and honestly.
Most of these were written for adults, which is why it is worth reading them with someone older.