 |
Volume
71 No. 1 (Spring 2003)
Arien Mack, Editor |
| Table of Contents | Notes on Contributors | Ordering information |
| Editor's
Note
Shortly after September 11, 2002, Susan Sontag was taken to task for arguing in the pages of The New Yorker that the hijackers of 9/11 were not cowards, because they were willing to die for a cause they believed in. A reader of the magazine wrote to remind her of Aristotle's argument in the Nichomachean Ethics that a courageous person is one who faces fearful things as he ought and as reason directs, "for the sake of what is noble." It seemed that the time was ripe for some new reflections on what it means to be courageous, hence this special issue of Social Research. Though our starting point was September 11, and our initial considerations included Palestinian suicide bombers and Kamikaze pilots of WWII, the issue quickly expanded to include a host of questions about the nature, forms, and expressions of courage. Papers in the issue look at courage as a civic virtue, the classical understanding of courage as a virtue, the need for courage in a democracy. Two papers, those by Fatos Lubonja and Jirina Siklova, look at the demand for courage in repressive societies, and what happens when those societies change and courage is no longer the order of the day. Other papers in the issue look at the nature of moral, physical, and intellectual courage, and the psychological and physiological bases of courage and fearlessness. At a time when terrorist threats are everywhere, it behooves us to consider once again what it means to be courageous. * I am
sure you will now have noticed our new look. Though our design
has
changed, our content and mission have not. We hope you like the new
design
and will continue to look to Social Research for rigorous and engaging
work, on issues both timely and timeless, by leading scholars and
writers.
Arien
Mack
|
Recommended Reading Vol. 75 No. 2 (Summer 2008) Hope and Despair Vol. 66 No. 2 (Summer 1999) Shame Vol. 70 No. 4 (Winter 2003) |
| David Pears | The Anatomy of Courage |
| Alan Ryan | Intellectual Courage |
| Marilynne Robinson | The Tyranny of Petty Coercion |
| George Kateb | Courage as a Virtue |
| Ryan K. Balot | The Dark Side of Democratic Courage |
| Gesine Schwan | Civil Courage and Human Dignity: How to Regain
Respect
for the Fundamental Values of Western Democracy |
| Fatos Lubonja | Courage and the Terror of Death |
| Jirina Šiklová | Courage, Heroism, and the Postmodern Paradox |
| Stanley J. Rachman | Fear and Courage: a Psychological Perspective |
| Andrew Silke | Courage in Dark Places: Reflections on Terrorist Psychology |
Notes
on Contributors
(at
time of publication)
| The
Dark Side of Democratic Courage
Ryan K. Balot Ryan
K. Balot is Associate Professor of Classics at Washington
University
in St. Louis. His publications include Greed and Injustice in Classical
Athens (2001) and articles on ancient Greek history and political
thought.
Courage
as a Virtue
George
Kateb is William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Politics and
Director
of the Program in Political Philosophy at Princeton University. His
books
include The Inner Ocean: Individualism and Democratic Culture, winner
of
the 1994 Spitz Book Prize by the Conference for the Study of Political
Thought.
Courage and the Terror of Death Fatos Lubonja Fatos
Lubonja is Editor-in-Chief of Perpjekja, in Tirana, Albania,
and a human rights activist in Albania. His documentary novel, The
Second
Sentence, published in Tirana in 1996, describes his trial for
“counterrevolutionary
organization” while already imprisoned by the communist government for
“agitation and propaganda.”
The Anatomy of Courage David Pears David
Pears, Philosopher, is Professor
Emeritus
at Oxford University. He is the author of “The False Prison”: A Study
of
the Development of Wittgenstein’s Philosophy (1991).
Fear and Courage: A Psychological Perspective Stanley J. Rachman Stanley
J. Rachman, Professor of Psychology Emeritus, University of
British Columbia, Vancouver, researches anxiety disorders,
cognitive-behavior
therapy, fear and courage, and obsessions.
The Tyranny of Petty Coercion Marilynne Robinson Marilynne
Robinson is a writer and Professor of Creative Writing at
the
University of Iowa. Her novel Housekeeping (1981) received the
PEN/Hemingway
award for best first novel and was nominated
Intellectual Courage Alan Ryan Alan
Ryan is Warden of New College, Oxford University. His
publications
include John Dewey and the High Tide of American Liberalism (1995) and
The Philosophy of John Stuart Mill (1970, 1987).
Civil Courage and Human Dignity: How to Regain Respect for the Fundamental Values of Western Democracy Gesine Schwan Gesine
Schwan is Professor of Political Science at the Free
University
of Berlin and a member of the Presidium of the Deutsche Vereeniging fur
Politische Wissenschaft. She is the author of Politics and Guilt: The
Destructive
Potential of Science (2001).
Courage, Heroism, and the Postmodern Paradox Jirina Siklova Jirina
Siklova is the founder of the Department of Social Work at
Charles
University and the Gender Studies Library in Prague.
Courage in Dark Places: Reflections on Terrorist Psychology Andrew Silke Andrew
Silke is a forensic psychologist who has published
extensively
on terrorism and the psychology of suicide bombers. His most recent
book
is Terrorists, Victims and Society (2003). He is a Senior Research
Associate
with the University of St Andrews and serves on the United Nations
Roster
of Terrorism Experts.
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