The Ethics of Courage : Volume 2: From Early Modernity to the Global Age

This two-volume work examines far-reaching debates on the concept of courage from Greek antiquity to the Christian and mediaeval periods, as well as the modern era. Volume 1 explains how competing accounts of epistêmê , rational wisdom, and truth dominated classical antiquity. Early Christian and mediaeval thinkers, in contrast, favoured fortitude founded on faith and fear of God over philosophical reasoning left to its own devices. Volume 2 turns to theories of courage from the early modern period to the present. It shows how the twin laws of polis and physis are at the heart of post-medieval thought. Courage is found at the crossroads of love and dread, freedom and fate, happiness and suffering, as well as power and submission to the ruling order. The later influence of evolutionism, existentialism, and the social and natural sciences on moral philosophy is also addressed at some length. The protection of people's best interests, the passions and powers of the human will, and the rule of active energy in all aspects of life supplant courage formerly viewed through the lens of reason or faith, or a combination of the two. These new ideas, paradoxically, herald the end of the ethics of courage. They also undermine the courage of ethical thinking. Courage is no longer an end in itself, nor is it a means to happiness "at the end." Regardless of what Gandhi, Tillich, and Foucault have to say about the topic, late modernity and the global age witness a marked loss of interest in courage as an idea worthy of conceptual investigation. Debates about the moral implications of courage give way to the value-free science of resilience, which studies how people can recover from past trauma and find wellness, primarily in the realm of physis . Contents 6 1: Truth, Power, and Life 11 Early Modernity and the Twin Rules of Physis and Polis 11 Modern Optimism and the Pessimism of Strength 19 The Ethics of Courage and the Courage of Ethics 23 2: The Body and the Body Politic 26 Animal Spirits and Climate: René Descartes and Montesquieu 27 Organised Cowardice: Étienne de La Boétie 33 Artificial Courage and the Politics of Self-love: Bernard Mandeville 38 References 46 3: Self-interest and the Sovereign 48 The Lion and the Fox: Niccolo Machiavelli 49 Courage at War and the Conditions of Peace: Thomas Hobbes 60 References 68 4: Justice, the Laws of Nature, and God 69 Self-preservation and Just War: Hugo Grotius and Samuel von Pufendorf 70 A Reasoned Disposition Towards God and Country 75 References 86 5: Moral Sympathy and Higher Passions 88 Freedom and Well-rewarded Passions: Claude-Adrien Helvétius 89 Sympathy and Sentiments of the Heart and Mind: David Hume 94 Self-love and Social Love: Adam Ferguson 103 References 109 6: The Natural and Rational Duty to God and Country 110 Martial Courage and Christian Virtue: Francis Hutcheson and Henry Home 111 Conservatism and the Sublime Passion of Duty: Edmund Burke 118 God, Valour, and Victories of the Mind: George Turnbull and David Fordyce 123 Fortitudo, Pleasure, and the Universe: Baruch Spinoza 129 References 134 7: Michel de Montaigne and the Vanity of Reason 136 The Merits of Stoicism 137 Irrationality, Chance Events, and Human Emotions 145 The Courage of Conscience and Self-awareness 153 References 159 8: Language, Self-consciousness, and Learning Experiences 160 Words, Education, and the Quiet Possession of Self: John Locke 161 Natural Living, Moral Strictness, and Republican Courage: Jean-Jacques Rousseau 170 References 180 9: Reasons Examined in Good Conscience 182 The Strength of Mind and the Love of Order: Nicolas Malebranche 183 Self-command, Sympathy, and the Impartial Spectator: Adam Smith 188 Practical Reason and Imperatives of the Mind: Immanuel Kant 193 Women’s Voices and Strength of Mind 199 References 206 10: The Evolution of Mind, Species, and Society 208 Running with the Hare and Hunting with the Hounds 208 The Owl at Dusk: Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel 211 The Law of Inheritance, Natural Selection, and Social Sympathy: Charles Darwin 222 References 227 11: Variations in Evolutionary Ethics 228 Levels of Social Complexity and Vitality: Herbert Spencer and Leslie Stephen 229 Evolving Theories of Evolution 237 References 246 12: Utilitarianism and Relativism with a Bias 248 The Calculations of Consequent Advantage: Jeremy Bentham and Henry Sidgwick 250 Sociological Relativism, in Support of Civilisation 256 Sociological Relativism, Against the Existing Order 269 References 275 13: Emerson’s Heroes of Truth 278 Energetic Courage and the Rule of Might 278 Self-commanding Individualism and the Solitary Scholar 284 Infinite Power and the Ultimate Sacrifice 290 Moral Duty and the Struggle for Freedom 293 References 296 14: The Courage of Despair 298 The Aesthetic, the Ethical, and the Religious: Søren Kierkegaard 299 The Tyranny of Reason and Morality: Max Stirner and Lev Shestov 315 References 320 15: Nietzsche’s Animal Foes and Friends 322 The Fox, the Ant, and the Ape 322 The Horse and the Lion 328 The Eagle and the Serpent 332 The Lamb and the Ass 336 References 339 16: The Will to Power 342 German Character, Tragic Art, and the Unhistorical 342 Pessimism of Strength and Dionysian Nihilism 346 Moral Scepticism and the Ascetic Will for Nothingness 350 Christianity and the Body 353 References 359 17: Thus Spoke Nietzsche 361 Democracy, Race, and the Herd Instinct 361 Aristocratic Radicalism and Argonauts of the Ideal 366 Lonesomeness, the Abyss, and the Eternal Return 371 Transvaluation of Nietzschean Courage 376 References 383 18: Courage in the Body and the Sociable Self 384 Energy of the Will and Social Sentiments: Shadworth Hodgson and Wilhelm Dilthey 385 The Feeling Body and the Socius: William James 389 A Suffering Humanity: Hermann Cohen 401 References 405 19: The Courage of Disobedience 406 The Faceless Wars: Albert Camus and Emmanuel Levinas 409 Escape from Authoritarianism: Erich Fromm and Paulo Freire 415 Resistance and Nonviolence: Mahatma Gandhi 420 References 427 20: Paul Tillich and the Courage to Be 430 Death, Condemnation, and Meaninglessness 431 Individuation, Participation, and Periods of History 434 Transcendence and the Acceptance of Acceptance 444 A World Above the World of Cynicism 447 References 450 21: Throwing Courage to the Dogs 451 Cynicism and Truth: Michel Foucault 451 Osho’s Farting Dog 461 Reasons to Lose Heart 465 References 470 22: Risk and Resilience 471 Imagining and Risking: Bertrand Russell and Paul Ricoeur 471 From Despair to Resilience 475 Recovery, for Want of Courage 486 References 491 23: Courage in the Global Age 493 Courage Thus Far 493 Beyond the Happy Mean 495 Reference 502