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Common to the belief about courage in every culture is the firm resistance to pain, danger, or difficulty. Courage means dealing with the threat of loss of life, liberty, and property by accepting and dealing with fear. It is a very strong virtue, and is a positive character trait in all cultures. Courage allows us to still act reasonably in the face of fear. Courage is not dealing with the threat in the absence of fear. Courage is an emotion and has the power to affect bodily changes. In all cultures courage is a highly valued virtue. It is a strong virtue, and its antithesis is feara very strong vice. Since there is a never-ending battle between virtue and vices, courage and fear are engaged in an ongoing contest over which force is more powerful. |
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Courage can take on as many forms as the variety of the objects that inspired the fear. The courageous person has conquered fear; the coward is overcome by it. Courage implies knowledge of reasonable and unreasonable fears. It is courage that allows us to remain firm when confronted with difficult choices. People who are ignorant or out of control are incapable of courage, even though their actions may be daring. |
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Courage is related to the emotion of hope. It is through hope that we boldly attack and attempt to overcome the threat. Mental ability, bodily strength, previous experience, loyal friends, and even divine assistance are some of the things that make victory possible. Success or conquest strengthens hope and leads to courage. Courage is also related to what we love and value most. It is when our loves are threatenedlife, family, money, possessions, country, and religious beliefsthat our courage is aroused and strengthened. Traders constantly have their loves threatened by the market. Traders obtain victory through their mental abilities, previous experiences (reference), empowering beliefs, and perhaps even divine assistance. |
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Courage in and by itself is neither moral nor immoral. However, since in many cases the emotion of courage involves the virtue of fortitude, courage is moral. Fortitude is the boundary line between cowardice, which holds us back by fears that reason tells us could be overcome, and rashness, which is a reckless disregard for what should reasonably be feared. Courage is involved in the virtues that are part of fortitudemagnanimity, magnificence, patience, and perseverance. Those who lack courage have given in to a false belief in what true courage is. Many cowardly people will also have the following vices: rashness, presumption, egotistical ambition, vanity, pusillanimity, meanness, and stubbornness. |
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The difficult choices of trading (or life) demand courage, especially when one outcome seems to preserve our equity, beliefs, and integrity |
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