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The Virtue of Courage
| Article
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12105 |
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Section : |
MODERN THOUGHT
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| Issue
Date : |
12 / 1987 |
6,322 Words |
| Author
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Douglas N. Walton
Douglas N. Walton, professor at the university of Winnipeg,
Canada, currently holds a Killam Research Fellowship and is a
fellow of the Netherlands Institute of Advanced Study in the
Humanities and Social Sciences. Professor Walton is the
author of many articles on topics in logic and ethics and
several books, including Courage: A philosophical
Investigation (University of California Press, 1986). |
Intelligent human action is goal-directed, but when pain, fear, or danger intrude, it is difficult to sustain the mental equilibrium to follow through, even if the goal is very important and the action critical. Hence, the need for courage. As Aquinas put it, the virtue of courage is "to remove any obstacle that withdraws the will from following the reason." Such overcoming of dangers, pain, and obstacles is well illustrated by the following incident.
Sgt. John. L. Levitow was on a C-47 cargo aircraft flying a night mission over Vietnam in February 1969 when the plane was hit and damaged, wounding all the occupants of the cargo compartment and throwing them against the floor or fuselage. One crewman had been launching flares, and the explosion threw an ignited flare from his grasp into the cargo compartment. The plane was out of control, and the flare rolled wildly from side to side. Levitow had moved forward to help another badly wounded man, even though he himself was stunned by the blast and had over forty fragment wounds in his back and legs. Seeing the smoking flare rolling in the aisle, but being unable to grasp it, he threw himself on it. Hugging it to his body, he managed to drag himself to the rear cargo door and hurl it out of the plane. For saving the aircraft and its crew from certain destruction, Levitow was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor.
It was necessary to remove the ignited flare from the aircraft if the crew were to survive. But to actually carry out this action was very difficult and dangerous. The situation was not only unstable and disorienting but highly intimidating. The flare was rolling around wildly. Levitow was badly wounded and stunned by the explosion of the shell that hit the plane. Because of the plane's instability, the only way he could control the burning flare was to hug it to his body.
All these factors suggest both the difficulty and hazards of the required actions as well as the unstable and confusing nature of the situation. To carry out this task required an unusual determination of will, presence of mind, and undeterred practical equilibrium.
Although there may have been professional skills or training that helped Levitow perform this exceptional sequence of actions, qualities of determination and presence of mind may not be due to any trained expertise in particular. And many cases of courageous actions that occur in a military context reflect not so much military training or professional skills as the simple and plain personal qualities of someone who steps
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