“Good heavens, Socrates, there is no difficulty about that: if a man is willing to remain at his post and to defend himself against the enemy without running away, then you may rest assured that he is a man of courage.”
In this quote, Laches is attempting to define courage as someone who stays at his post and defends against the enemy. However, this definition is weak, vague, and overconfident. The statement “then you may rest assured that he is a man of courage” means a man defending his post during an enemy attack makes him, no matter the circumstance, a man of courage. However, this is wrong. A man remaining at his post while being attacked isn’t always an “assured man of courage,” because there are circumstances, such
|