Editing Courage (section)

===Modern===
====Pre-19th century====
[[Thomas Hobbes]] lists virtues into the categories of moral virtues and virtues of men in his work ''Man and Citizen''.{{sfn|Hobbes|1972|pp=68–70}} Hobbes outlines moral virtues as virtues in citizens, that is virtues that without exception are beneficial to society as a whole.{{sfn|Hobbes|1972|pp=17–18}} These moral virtues are justice (i.e. not violating the law) and charity. Courage as well as prudence and temperance are listed as the virtues of men.{{sfn|Hobbes|1972|pp=68–70}} By this Hobbes means that these virtues are invested solely in the private good as opposed to the public good of justice and charity. Hobbes describes courage and prudence as strengths of mind as opposed to a goodness of manners. These virtues are always meant to act in the interests of individual while the positive and/or negative effects of society are merely a byproduct. This stems forth from the idea put forth in ''[[Leviathan (Hobbes book)|Leviathan]]'' that the [[state of nature]] is "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short" and self-preservation is the most fundamental aspect of behavior. According to Hobbes courage is a virtue of the individual in order to ensure a better chance of survival while the moral virtues address Hobbes's social contract which civilized men display (in varying degrees) in order to transcend the state of nature.{{sfn|Hobbes|1972|p=290}} Hobbes also uses the idea of fortitude as a virtue. Fortitude is "to dare" according to Hobbes, but also to "resist stoutly in present dangers".{{sfn|Hobbes|1972|pp=150–52}} This is a more in-depth elaboration of Hobbes's concept of courage that is addressed earlier in {{clarify|text=''Man and Citizen''|reason=not listed here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Hobbes#Works|date=July 2023}}.

[[David Hume]] listed virtues into two categories in his work ''[[A Treatise of Human Nature]]'': artificial virtues and natural virtues. Hume categorized courage as a natural virtue. In the ''Treatise'''s section "Of Pride and Humility, Their Objects and Causes", Hume wrote that courage is a cause of pride: "Every valuable quality of the mind, whether of the imagination, judgment, memory or disposition; wit, good-sense, learning, courage, justice, integrity; all these are the cause of pride; and their opposites of humility".{{sfn|Hume|1751|p=434}} 

Hume also wrote that courage and joy have positive effects on the [[soul]]: "...since the soul, when elevated with joy and courage, in a manner seeks opposition, and throws itself with alacrity into any scene of thought or action, where its courage meets with matter to nourish and employ it".{{sfn|Hume|1751|p=666}} Along with courage nourishing and employing, Hume also wrote that courage defends humans in the ''Treatise'': "We easily gain from the liberality of others, but are always in danger of losing by their avarice: Courage defends us, but cowardice lays us open to every attack".{{sfn|Hume|1751|p=459}}

Hume considered what excessive courage does to a hero's character in the ''Treatise'''s section "Of the Other Virtues and Vices": "Accordingly we may observe, that an excessive courage and magnanimity, especially when it displays itself under the frowns of fortune, contributes in a great measure, to the character of a hero, and will render a person the admiration of posterity; at the same time, that it ruins his affairs, and leads him into dangers and difficulties, with which otherwise he would never have been acquainted".{{sfn|Hume|1751|p=900}}

Other understandings of courage that Hume offered can be derived from Hume's views on morals, reason, sentiment, and virtue from his work ''[[An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals]].''

====19th century onward====

[[Søren Kierkegaard]] opposed courage to [[angst]],{{cn|date=July 2023}} while [[Paul Tillich]] opposed an existential ''courage to be'' with [[non-being]],{{sfn|Tillich|1952|p=89}} fundamentally equating it with [[religion]]:
{{blockquote|Courage is the self-affirmation of being in spite of the fact of non-being. It is the act of the individual self in taking the anxiety of non-being upon itself by affirming itself... in the anxiety of guilt and condemnation.... every courage to be has openly or covertly a religious root. For religion is the state of being grasped by the power of being itself.{{sfn|Tillich|1952|pp=152–183}} }}

[[J.R.R. Tolkien]] identified in his 1936 lecture "[[Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics]]" a "[[Northern Europe|Northern]] 'theory of courage'" – the [[hero]]ic or "[[virtuous pagan]]" insistence to do the right thing even in the face of certain defeat without promise of reward or [[salvation]]:
{{blockquote|It is the strength of the [[Norse mythology|northern mythological imagination]] that it faced this problem, put the monsters in the centre, gave them victory but no honor, and found a potent and terrible solution in naked will and courage. 'As a working theory absolutely impregnable.' So potent is it, that while the [[Greek mythology|older southern imagination]]  has faded forever into literary ornament, the northern has power, as it were, to revive its spirit even in our own times. It can work, as it did even with the ''[[goðlauss]]'' Viking, without gods: martial heroism as its own end.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://completejrrt.tv/tta_open/2$B.+Old+English+Tales+and+Literary+Works%5bSection%5d/8$The+Monsters+And+The+Critics%5bBook%5d/1$Beowulf..+The+Monsters+and+the+Critics%5bChapter%5d/0025.htm|title=Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics|last=Tolkien|first=JRR|publisher=The Tolkien Estate|page=25|access-date=2008-04-25|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071015113632/http://completejrrt.tv/tta_open/2%24B.%2BOld%2BEnglish%2BTales%2Band%2BLiterary%2BWorks%5BSection%5D/8%24The%2BMonsters%2BAnd%2BThe%2BCritics%5BBook%5D/1%24Beowulf..%2BThe%2BMonsters%2Band%2Bthe%2BCritics%5BChapter%5D/0025.htm|archive-date=2007-10-15|url-status=dead}}</ref>}}

Virtuous pagan heroism or courage in this sense is "trusting in your own strength", as observed by [[Jacob Grimm]] in his ''Teutonic Mythology'':

{{blockquote|Men who, turning away in utter disgust and doubt from the heathen faith, placed their reliance on their own strength and virtue. Thus in the [[Sôlar lioð]] 17 we read of Vêbogi and Râdey {{lang|non|â sik þau trûðu}}, "in themselves they trusted".<ref>{{cite book|last=Grimm|first=Jacob|title=Deutsche Mythologie (Teutonic Mythology)|publisher=Göttingen|location=Dieterich|year=1835|edition=1|language=de}}</ref>}}

[[Ernest Hemingway]] famously defined courage as "grace under pressure".<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.neh.gov/humanities/1999/julyaugust/feature/celebrating-ernest-hemingway%E2%80%99s-century|year=1999|title=Celebrating Ernest Hemingway's Century|last=Carter|first=Richard|work=neh.gov|publisher=National Endowment for the Humanities|access-date=2009-06-19|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130930035235/http://www.neh.gov/humanities/1999/julyaugust/feature/celebrating-ernest-hemingway%E2%80%99s-century|archive-date=2013-09-30|url-status=dead}}</ref>

[[Winston Churchill]] stated, "Courage is rightly esteemed the first of human qualities because it is the quality that guarantees all others."<ref>{{Cite web |title=Winston Churchill |url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/acref/9780191843730.001.0001/q-oro-ed5-00002969 |access-date=2025-02-23 |website=Oxford Reference |language=en |doi=10.1093/acref/9780191843730.001.0001/q-oro-ed5-00002969|doi-broken-date=8 April 2025 }}</ref>

According to [[Maya Angelou]], "Courage is the most important of the virtues, because without courage you can't practice any other virtue consistently. You can practice any virtue erratically, but nothing consistently without courage."<ref>Maya Angelou, ''Meeting Dr. Du Bois'' (audio interview by Krista Tippett, 2014)</ref> And [[C. S. Lewis]] wrote that "Courage is not simply one of the virtues but the form of every virtue at the testing point, which means at the point of highest reality."<ref>{{cite book|first=C. S.|last=Lewis|title=The Screwtape Letters|year=1942|at=letter XXIX}}</ref>

In ''[[Beyond Good and Evil]]'', [[Friedrich Nietzsche]] describes [[master–slave morality]], in which a noble man regards himself as a "determiner of values"; one who does not require approval, but passes judgment. Later, in the same text, he lists man's four virtues as courage, insight, sympathy, and solitude, and goes on to emphasize the importance of courage: "The great epochs of our life are the occasions when we gain the courage to re-baptize our evil qualities as our best qualities."{{sfn|Nietzsche|1989|p=65}}

According to the Swiss psychologist Andreas Dick, courage consists of the following components:<ref>{{cite book|first=Andreas|last=Dick|title=Mut – Über sich hinauswachsen|publisher=Hans Huber Verlag|location=Bern|year=2010|isbn=978-3-456-84835-8}}</ref>

# put at risk, risk or repugnance, or sacrifice safety or convenience, which may result in death, bodily harm, social condemnation or emotional deprivation;
# a knowledge of wisdom and prudence about what is right and wrong in a given moment;
# Hope and confidence in a happy, meaningful outcome;
# a free will;
# a motive based on love.