The Mystery of Courage

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Harvard University Press, 30.04.2002 г. - 360 страници

Few of us spend much time thinking about courage, but we know it when we see it--or do we? Is it best displayed by marching into danger, making the charge, or by resisting, enduring without complaint? Is it physical or moral, or both? Is it fearless, or does it involve subduing fear? Abner Small, a Civil War soldier, was puzzled by what he called the "mystery of bravery"; to him, courage and cowardice seemed strangely divorced from character and will. It is this mystery, just as puzzling in our day, that William Ian Miller unravels in this engrossing meditation.

Miller culls sources as varied as soldiers' memoirs, heroic and romantic literature, and philosophical discussions to get to the heart of courage--and to expose its role in generating the central anxieties of masculinity and manhood. He probes the link between courage and fear, and explores the connection between bravery and seemingly related states: rashness, stubbornness, madness, cruelty, fury; pride and fear of disgrace; and the authority and experience that minimize fear. By turns witty and moving, inquisitive and critical, his inquiry takes us from ancient Greece to medieval Europe, to the American Civil War, to the Great War and Vietnam, with sidetrips to the schoolyard, the bedroom, and the restaurant. Whether consulting Aristotle or private soldiers, Miller elicits consistently compelling insights into a condition as endlessly interesting as it is elusive.

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Съдържание

Introduction The Good Coward
1
Aristodemus or Cowardice Redeemed
14
Tim OBrien and Laches
25
Courageous Disposition
43
Courage and Scarcity
62
I Have a Wife and Pigs
73
Shoot the Stragglers and the Problem of Retreat
88
Offense Defense and Rescue
102
The Shape and Style of Courage
181
The Emotional Terrain Fear Hope Despair
197
The Emotional Terrain Disgust Anger Relief
216
Courage and Chastity
228
Moral Courage and Civility
250
Fixing to Die A Valediction
267
Concluding Postscript
277
Notes
283

Man the Chicken
123
Praised Be Rashness
144
Stupidity Skill and Shame
164
Bibliography
317
Index
329
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Информация за автора (2002)

William Ian Miller is Professor of Law at the University of Michigan.

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