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Definitions As a virtue, courage is covered extensively in Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics, its vice of deficiency being cowardice, and its vice of excess being recklessness. It is well understood that physical and moral courage matters in the military, and there are ample illustrations of courage in religion, sometimes to the point of martyrdom. Courage is one of the Four Cardinal Virtues of the Catholic Church. "Cardinal" meaning "pivotal" is applied to this virtue because to possess any virtue, a person must be able to sustain it in the face of difficulty. The precise view of what constitutes courage not only varies among cultures, but among individuals. For instance, some define courage as lacking fear in a situation that would normally generate it. Others, in contrast, hold that courage requires one to have fear and then overcome it. There are also more subtle distinctions in the definition of courage. For example, some distinguish between courage and foolhardiness in that a courageous person overcomes a justifiable fear for an even more noble purpose. If the fear is not justifiable or the purpose not noble, then the courage is either false, or foolhardy. Moral courage Moral courage, more than physical courage, is widely debated. It is frequently regarded as courage solely by those who approve of the actions undertaken; those who disapprove are more likely to regard it as an obstinate refusal to be corrected or a shameless determination to do as one pleases. Shame, indeed, is widely used to socialize, and in many warrior cultures, the threat of shame is used to reinforce physical courage, by reminding warriors that if they retreat rather than die they will be held up to ridicule for having failed their leader. Symbolism Its accompanying animal is the lion. Often, Fortitude is depicted as having tamed the ferocious lion. Cf. e.g. the Tarot trump called Strength. It is sometimes seen as a depiction of the Catholic Church's triumph over sin. See also Notes | ||||||||||
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