A thought provoking article: Courage.

[Robert.B]

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/04/science/04angier.html?_r=3&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&pagewanted=all

I especially liked this paragraph.

"...if courage finds its highest expression in war, then the trait paradoxically
becomes an immoral virtue, ennobling war and carnage by insisting that only
in battle can men — and it usually is men — discover the depths of their
nobility."

It seems these days the people (especially those in power) are led by fear, there is a lacking of courage...I don't know if I'm just a little jaded with society but fear seems to control the actions of others a lot more then it should.

 

[Justabuyer]

I enjoyed the article. It validated some things I have long thought to be true about courage and the nature of heroics.

 

[ttoney83]

Dr. Kateb couldn't be more wrong.

But Dr. Kateb points out that if courage finds its highest expression in war, then the trait paradoxically becomes an immoral virtue, ennobling war and carnage by insisting that only in battle can men — and it usually is men — discover the depths of their nobility.

Courage in battle does not glorify war or ennoble it. Courage finds it's highest expression in war because there is almost no other instance where one will be confronted by other human beings actively and deliberatly trying to kill them. To face this threat to one's life and STILL retrieve a fallen comrade is the height of courage because of that threat to one's own life. Since courage under fire will always involves the saving of one's comrades from certain death, courage is all about Love of your fellow Man. I know that might seem ridiculous that it's about Love of your fellow Man while one is trying to kill other fellow men, but, that human beings still have to view other Nationalities as "other" is just another Human failing yet to be overcome.
The closest parallel to courage in battle in the civilian world would be Law Enforcment. In that line of work one may actually be faced with an assailant determined to kill innocents and or the Officer.

All the other examples given in the article related to human beings are just gradations of courage.

The following example I thought was just plain ridiculous.

Joel Berger, a biologist with the Wildlife Conservation Society and the University of Montana, also distinguishes between animals that behave boldly for lack of experience — like mockingbirds unfamiliar with humans that will alight on the rim of a person’s cup to take a drink — and those that are aware of a danger but proceed in the face of it.

He cited the time he and his colleagues had immobilized a young bison in preparation for taking blood samples, and when they returned, an unrelated adult male bison was standing guard over the yearling, refusing to let the scientists approach.

“He knew that he could be attacked by us, and there was no genetic kinship involved,” said Dr. Berger. “Courage may be a human construct, but I’d call this a courageous, even heroic act.”

A Bison? Doing what Bison do? That's instinct, not courageous or heroic. The Bison doesn't make a conscious choice to behave this way, that is the key difference the conscious choice to do a thing which may kill you or injure you to save another.
I think a better example from the animal kingdom would be dogs working with LEOs, or maybe even dogs in general. But who knows, maybe there is sufficient development in the animal subgenual anterior cingulate cortexes for their to be a real possibility of conscious decision making in animals.

.

 

[fudo]

IMHO Dr. Kateb has a severe case of cehpalo-anal inversion:barf:

 

[Erasmus]

Animals certainly do make decisions. All you have to do is up the stakes in the game to life and death, and you'll see for yourself. Every hunter who has a hunting dog knows this, because he has seen this over and over. Shot up covies learn very fast, or they die in detail. Chukkars are even smarter. Crows are thinkers, nearly brilliant.

Every labrador owner knows that labs think stuff over, and make a fine calculation what they can get away with: begging at the table, stealing Easter hams off the table when no one is in the room, eating shoes, escaping, pointing birds, looking for downed birds on command, correctly interpreting hand signals, a steadily growing english vocabulary. The list goes on.

Non hunters don't know any of this stuff, cause wild animals don't respect them enough to react and adapt to their behavior. Treadwell excepted.