“I should say that courage is a sort of endurance of the soul, if I am to speak of the universal nature which pervades them all.”
- Source
- Laches
- Date
- 4th century BCE
- Local voice
- Dialogue speaker · Laches
- English wording
- Benjamin Jowett — Translator · from Ancient Greek
Meaning of “I should say that courage is a sort…”
Laches proposes endurance of the soul as a feature shared by different courageous acts, not only by soldiers who hold their ground. Socrates immediately tests this definition and asks whether stubborn endurance without wisdom can be harmful. The dialogue does not endorse endurance alone as a final, sufficient definition of courage.
Where does it come from?
Laches, roughly Stephanus 192b–c, Benjamin Jowett English, Project Gutenberg #1584. Laches answers Socrates’s attempt to define courage beyond battlefield conduct; Socrates then challenges whether foolish endurance can count as courageous. The local dramatic speaker is Laches, not Socrates or Plato himself. This is a contested proposal inside an unresolved inquiry, not Plato’s stand-alone creed.
Why the local voice matters
Laches around 192b–c in Jowett translation; a provisional endurance account that Socrates contests.
