tricky

I have dark suspicions as to whether courage is a virtue. Certainly it comprises a number of elementary virtues (strength, focus, valor, persistence); it is only the composite that I suspect. But courage is commonly thought of as in itself a single virtue, and I have struggled and failed to account for its virtuousness. (I can account for the approximate virtuousness of most other virtues.)

In fact, I'd venture that most moments in which courage - and not some one or several of its elements - is urged, and in which the urging of nothing else would do, are moments of propaganda and manipulation.

More precisely and bluntly: I have a hard time thinking of an instance (real or invented) in which courage is urged and treated as noncomposite (and for which nothing else would do), that is not actually a cloaked invitation to submission.

(So, keep that in mind, friends of mine, next time I urge you to be courageous!)