Courageous Act

A Courageous Act is an voluntary act of a fight response to a perceived threat (vs. a flight response)

• Context:
  • It can (typically) involve a Fear Emotion.
  • It can (typically) involve a Courageous Decision.
  • It can be performed by an emotional agent with a Courage Ability.
  • It can range from being an Automatic Courageous Act to being a Reflective Courageous Act.
  • It can range from being a Physically Courageous Act (for physical fears) to being a Psychologically Courageous Act (for psychological fears)
  • It can range from being a Courageous Act for a Worthy Goal to being a Courageous Act for an Unworthy Goal.
  • …
• Example(s):
  • standing up to a sadistic bully.
  • risking one's life to save their property.
  • an Act of Moral Courage, such as risking a prison sentence to help topple an authoritarian government.
  • …
• Counter-Example(s):
  • a Cowardly Act/Act of Cowardice (often precipitated by Flight Response).
  • a Fear Emotion.
  • a Shame Emotion.
• See: Boldness, Confidence, Risk Assessment, Uncertainty.

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References

2020

• (Wikipedia, 2020) ⇒ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/courage Retrieved:2020-7-4.
  • Courage (also called bravery or valour) is the choice and willingness to confront agony, pain, danger, uncertainty, or intimidation. Physical courage is bravery in the face of physical pain, hardship, even death or threat of death, while moral courage is the ability to act rightly in the face of popular opposition, shame, scandal, discouragement, or personal loss. The classical virtue of fortitude (andreia, fortitudo) is also translated "courage", but includes the aspects of perseverance and patience.

    In the Western tradition, notable thoughts on courage have come from philosophers, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Aquinas, and Kierkegaard; as well as

    Christian beliefs and texts.

    In the Hindu tradition, mythology has given many examples of bravery, valour and courage with examples of both physical and moral courage exemplified. According to the Hindu religion, bravery and courage are in the blood of all Indians.

    In the Eastern tradition, some thoughts on courage were offered by the Tao Te Ching.

2007

• (Woodard & Pury, 2007) ⇒ Cooper R. Woodard, and Cynthia L.S. Pury. (2007). “The Construct of Courage: Categorization and measurement.” In: Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice and Research, 59(2).
  • QUOTE: Courage is the voluntary willingness to act, with or without varying levels of fear, in response to a threat to achieve an important, perhaps moral, outcome or goal. This definition acknowledges that fear may or may not be present to any significant degree for an act to be considered courageous, and makes evident the two generally agreed upon components of courage: threat and worthy or important outcome.

2004

• (Woodard, 2004) ⇒ Cooper R. Woodard. (2004). “Hardiness and the Concept of Courage.” In: Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice and Research, 56, 173–185.

2003

• (Lopez et al., 2003) ⇒ Shane J. Lopez, Kristen Koetting O’Byrne, and Stephanie Peterson. (2003). “Profiling Courage." In" S. J. Lopez & C. R. Snyder (Eds.), "Positive psychological assessment: A handbook of models and measures".
  • ABSTRACT: The question, What is courage?, is addressed in this chapter from scholarly and psychological perspectives. The following approaches to measuring courage are discussed in turn: Rachman's measurement of physiological responses associated with courageous responses to fear or stress; Finfgeld's system of interviews that highlight the process of becoming and being courageous in the face of chronic illness; Buss and Craik's act-frequency approach and related sociometric procedures that lend themselves to identifying courage exemplars and their qualities; and paper-and-pencil scales that serve as quick means of measurement.

1997

• (Putman, 1997) ⇒ Daniel Putman. (1997). “Psychological Courage.” In: Philosophy, Psychiatry, & Psychology, 4(1).

1992

• (Block et al., 1992) ⇒ Gay Block, Malka Drucker, Cynthia Ozick, and Harold M. Schulweis. (1992). “Rescuers: Portraits of moral courage in the Holocaust." Holmes & Meier.

1991

• (Reiss, 1991) ⇒ Steven Reiss. (1991). “Expectancy Model of Fear, Anxiety, and Panic.” In: Clinical Psychology Review, 11(2).

1984

• (Shelp, 1984) ⇒ E. E. Shelp. (1984). “Courage: A neglected virtue in the patient — physician relationship." Social Science and Medicine, 18.
  • QUOTE: Courage is the disposition to voluntarily act, perhaps fearfully, in a dangerous circumstance, where the relevant risks are reasonably appraised, in an effort to obtain or preserve some perceived good for one self or others recognizing that the desired perceived good may not be realized … (p. 354).

• (Rachman, 1984) ⇒ Stanley J. Rachman. (1984). “Fear and Courage.” In: Behavior Therapy, 15.
  • NOTE: It suggests that courage is related to resilience in the face of threat, and the capacity to act despite fear.

196?

• Martin Luther King.
  • QUOTE: We must build dikes of courage to hold back the flood of fear

1889

• (Nietzsche, 1889) ⇒ Friedrich Nietzsche. (1889). “Twilight of the Idols."
  • QUOTE: … Even the most courageous among us only rarely has the courage to face what he already knows. …

185?

• Søren Kierkegaard. ...
  • QUOTE: It requires courage not to surrender oneself to the ingenious or compassionate counsels of despair that would induce a man to eliminate himself from the ranks of the living; but it does not follow from this that every huckster who is fattened and nourished in self-confidence has more courage than the man who yielded to despair.

1843

• Søren Kierkegaard. (1843). “Either/Or: A Fragment of Life." Translated by David F. Swenson and Lillian Marvin Swenson. Volume I. Prinecton, 1959, ISBN:0-691-01976-2
  • QUOTE: I have the courage, I believe, to doubt everything; I have the courage, I believe, to fight with everything; but I have not the courage to know anything; not the courage to possess, to own anything. Most people complain that the world is so prosaic, that life is not like romance, where opportunities are always so favorable. I complain that life is not like romance, where one had hard-hearted parents and nixies and trolls to fight, and enchanted princesses to free. What are all such enemies taken together, compared with the pale, bloodless, tenacious, nocturnal shapes with which I fight, and to whom I give life and substance?

1750

• Samuel Johnson. ...
  • QUOTE: Bravery has no place where it can avail nothing.

1790

• (Burke, 1790) ⇒ Edmund Burke. (1790). “Reflections on the Revolution in France: And on the Proceedings in Certain Societies in London Relative to That Event. In a Letter Intended to Have Been Sent to a Gentleman in Paris."
  • QUOTE: The unbought grace of life, the cheap defence of nations, the nurse of manly sentiment and heroic enterprise, is gone! It is gone, that sensibility of principle, that chastity of honour, which felt a stain like a wound, which inspired courage whilst it mitigated ferocity, which ennobled whatever it touched, and under which vice itself lost half its evil, by losing all its grossness.

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