Thursday, September 26, 2013
Displaying Courage vs. Courageous Acts
Suicide bombers and kamikaze pilots aside, our
discussion today in class still has me wondering about the distinction between
displaying courage (or acting courageously) and performing a courageous
act. I am curious if the former could be
said to be morally neutral, whereas the latter could not. For example, Professor Silliman suggested
that if he was pushed off of a cliff and landed on a would-be murderer, his
body would have performed a courageous act, but he could not be credited as
having acted courageously. In this view,
is the act considered courageous not just because it required some degree of
courage (accidental or not) to perform, but also because it attained a good
end? Similarly, could we then say that a
bank robber displays courage (morally
neutral) in facing great danger and potential punishment, but that he or she
does not perform a courageous act because they are pursuing bad ends?
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ReplyDeleteI think in Silliman's example of falling of a cliff accidentally and saving someone, the result only appears to be due to a courageous act, when courage isn't involved at all. Had Professor Silliman intentionally jumped off the cliff to do what he did, that would have been a courageous act. I would argue that his body did not actually perform a courageous act, it just caused a result that, had the action been performed intentionally, would have required courage. We can only label it a 'kind of courages act' because we can imagine the version in which the actor did it on purpose.
ReplyDeleteI think that courage possibly does require good ends. When someone overcomes fear to perform a bad act, that usually involves overcoming and suppressing the conscience and other parts of the psyche that know the action is wrong (with the exception of socio paths). Though overcoming those things requires a force similar to courage, there is a big difference - An act of courage requires overcoming the fear of your own safety as to be selfless in helping others.
So, maybe we need a different word for the courage-like thing that the bank robber does? I am not sure what that is...
We could call it guts, or perhaps chutzpah, reserving 'courage' for actions that are morally praiseworthy.
DeleteI think it all depends on what your definition of courage is. I just commented on another blogpost claiming that there is both good and bad courage. From my understanding, being courageous and having courage is the same thing. Do you have a definition of courage? And courageous for that matter?
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