A Discussion of Mark O’Keefe’s Virtue Abounding Chapter 4 “Fortitude (or Courage)”
The virtue of courage may be one we think we know the meaning of, as we think of firefighters fighting flames or soldiers running into battle. And those are types of courage, but as a virtue there is a lot more to it.
The virtue of courage is also sometimes called fortitude, a word less familiar today. O’Keefe notes the etymology of fortitude is from a Latin word that means “strong, steadfast, or sturdy.” (p. 49) The words fort and fortified come from the same word.
Courage derives from a Latin word that means “heart” and is related to the word cardiology. (p. 49)
O’Keefe notes that it makes sense we use courage and fortitude as synonyms because “they both refer to inner strength and steadfastness in the face of difficulties.” (p. 49)
And those difficulties do not have to be life-threatening, as the examples we first think of noted above.
The virtue of fortitude is the abiding inclination to overcome obstacles or confront dangers to attain a good. (p. 49)
O’Keefe notes life is full of challenges and struggles that are not immediately life-threatening but require courage to overcome.
It is a form of courage to give witness to one’s faith by practicing it actively in the face of ridicule or scorn…It is a form of courage, too, to pursue one’s education in face of other responsibilities and the need to work other jobs to pay tuition. It is courageous to keep one’s head held high in the face of poverty and want, to continue to do what can and must be done, while at the same time refusing to let oneself be defeated emotionally and spiritually. (p. 50)
With this explanation of the virtue of courage, we can see how important it is for each of us to develop it to live our life to the fullest. And that is what St. Thomas Aquinas’s ultimate point is in calling for us to develop the moral virtues — that we become the kind of people who reliably do good.
Aquinas notes that courage is not about having no fear but instead acting in the face of fear.
Courage, says Aquinas, moderates fear. Fear, in itself, is not a bad thing. It is a natural response to the perception that some person, thing, or situation is a threat to us in some way…The virtue of courage is the sustained ability to recognize and accept our vulnerability to some danger, threat, or obstacle — our fear — but not be paralyzed by it. (p. 50)
Like the other cardinal virtues, temperance, prudence, and justice, we develop courage through practice. One choice after another we either grow courage or we grow its opposite, the vices of cowardice or recklessness.
O’Keefe notes courage can only be developed “by confronting one obstacle after another, by refusing to give up one time after another, by sticking with an effort despite its difficulty.” (p. 50)
This makes me think of why overprotective parenting is so damaging. Coddling children so they do not have to struggle with obstacles deprives them of the chance to know they can overcome them.
It leaves them fearful and anxious when obstacles face them in the future because they have not developed courage.
O’Keefe notes that we can “en-courage” by supporting them through challenges or “dis-courage” by deflating their confidence. (p. 51)
Aquinas notes two modes of courage: a posture of attack and a posture of endurance. (p. 56)
The attack mode is more what we think of when we hear the word courage such as the firefighter or soldier. Two virtues related to the attack mode of courage are magnanimity and magnificence.
Magnanimity is “the abiding tendency to see the worthiness of a goal, to imagine the goodness of its attainment, and to see the reality of what separates us from the goal.” (p. 58)
As examples, O’Keefe mentions Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Mahatman Ghandi, and Saint Mother Teresa. (p. 58) All could see the dream of a better way and take the steps to achieve it.
Magnificence is a virtue for those who have more money than they need who seek to use it to do good for society. (p. 62) As O’Keefe notes, it is the philanthropic virtue.
Both of those are considered attack mode because they require action.
The endurance mode though calls on an inner strength in the face of challenges. Two virtues related to the endurance mode of courage are perseverance and patience. Both require the ability to hold on as opposed to giving up.
Patience is the virtue that gives a person the strength to endure hardship without descending into despair.
Patient people know how to maintain their inner calm while waiting, who can confront the challenge that must simply be endured for a time, and who possess the inner nobility of spirit to carry themselves with due composure as a witness to those around them. (p. 65)
Finally, there is the endurance virtue of perseverance, one I have long thought is the key to success just by not giving up, though O’Keefe notes for it to be a virtue it has to be not giving up on a worthy goal. (p. 65)
Perseverance resists discouragement and the temptation to give up on a goal which has been perceived and embraced as truly worthy. It reveals the true power of the human spirit to endure. The development of real athletic skill in order to excel at competitive sports, the pursuit of serious scholarship, or getting a college degree while holding down part-time jobs and caring for a family — all of these require perseverance. (p. 66)
Hopefully, this deep dive into courage and these related virtues, magnanimity, magnificence, patience and endurance, make it clear how important courage is as a virtue in all our lives and how our lives could be improved with a concerted effort to develop and encourage courage.
To wrap up our understanding of courage, it is worth looking at its vices — cowardice and recklessness.
Courage requires a recognition of the fear the obstacle or challenge is causing but choosing to act anyway because of the goodness of the goal.
Cowardice is when we let the fear win and do not take the steps to achieve the good goal.
It is the inclination to be paralyzed by fear or the tendency not to rise to the challenge of confronting obstacles so that good can be accomplished. As we have seen, it can be failure to embrace the good that is worthy of our effort. (p. 54)
Recklessness is another vice but one where the person does act in the face of fear, however, they are not properly judging the dangers they face.
There can also be people who seem at first glance to be truly brave but who are merely foolhardy. The imprudence of the foolhardy can take many forms: failure to ponder and weigh risks, negligence in taking adequate precautions, or carelessly (or with misplaced pride) overestimating one’s abilities. (p. 56)
So then by looking at the vices, we can see courage requires us to recognize a good action that needs to be taken, to properly acknowledge the risks, dangers, and obstacles, and to overcome the resulting fears to achieve the goal.
If we are fortunate, we will not face life and death situations that require a type of courage. But this discussion shows us we all face challenges in our daily lives that would be best handled if we have developed the virtue of courage by choosing to be courageous time and time again.
And we as a society would be better off if we realized that children need to be allowed to struggle with obstacles so they have the change to develop courage and the knowledge that they are strong enough to handle life’s problems.
But we won’t be able to muster such extraordinary courage without the daily, ordinary efforts to confront and to endure life’s inevitable little challenges, unless we can “stay the course” in the midst of life’s choppy waters and sudden storms, unless we can be both big-souled and, at the same time, perservere and remain patient. (p. 68)
Reference: O’Keefe, Mark, 2014. “Fortitude (or Courage),” Chapter 4 of Virtues Abounding, Cascade Books.
