MODULE 6: MORAL COURAGE

Moral courage is the courage to take action for moral reasons despite the risk of
adverse consequences.
Courage is required in order to take action when one has doubts or fears about the
consequences. Moral courage therefore involves deliberation or careful
thought. Reflex action or dogmatic fanaticism do not involve moral courage because
such impulsive actions are not based upon moral reasoning.
Moral courage may also require physical courage when the consequences
are punishment or other bodily peril.
Moral courage has been seen as the exemplary modernist form of courage.

Parenting approach
Incorporating moral courage into parenting can affect the self-expression of the child
during late adolescence. It is more likely for a person to exemplify moral courage in
adulthood if they were raised receiving respect and compassion from their parents
than if they were raised in a violent environment. Parents teaching moral values
such as empathy, justice, equality, and a caring focus on others are indicative of the
development of moral courage. The development of moral courage within parenting
is not only affected by the parent's passed-down moral values but the children's
autonomy on how to perceive and practice their moral values. Those who
incorporate the practice of their moral values into their everyday lives engage in
moral courage to protect those values as well.

Examples of moral courage

Moral courage can be shown through selfless actions aimed at diminishing or
eliminating discrimination. A study used qualitative research methods to analyze
the process of how and why individuals become LGBT allies. The study mentions
how human resources development play a role to help prevent LGBT discrimination
in the workplace.
Moral courage is demonstrated when individuals stand up for moral principles, even
if it puts them in danger or the violation of those principles does not directly affect
them. During the Holocaust, many non-Jews demonstrated moral courage by risking
their lives to save and help rescue Jews, often individuals and families they had
never met. The likelihood of this kind of moral courage is less determined by
external situational factors and more indicative of the internal traits and qualities of
the individuals rescuing Jews. Some traits that drive people to exhibit this kind of
moral courage include empathy, a sense of social responsibility, strong ethical
standards such as justice and equality, advanced moral judgment, and the
openness to take risks.

Moral courage anonymity

Many different aspects can contribute to moral courage. Something that may inhibit
moral courage however, is the undesirable consequences in their personal, social,
and work life. A way of counteracting those adverse consequences and increasing
moral courage may be by adding anonymity. In a study on online moral courage,
they found that moral courage and anonymity online had a positive correlation.
Moral courage was also correlated with gender, age, and education levels,
therefore, those who are older, male, and have lower levels of education are more
likely to perform acts of moral courage when they perceive that they are acting
anonymously compared to those who are young, female, and have higher levels of
education. Even when controlling those factors, there is still a positive correlation.

Types of Courage
Courage can manifest in various forms beyond physical bravery, including moral,
social, intellectual, emotional, and spiritual courage. Each type involves facing fears
and challenges, but in different contexts.
Here's a breakdown of some key types of courage:

1. Physical Courage: This is the most commonly understood form, involving

the willingness to face physical danger or adversity, potentially risking bodily
harm or death. Examples include acts of bravery in emergencies,
participating in dangerous activities, or enduring hardship.
2. Moral Courage: This type involves standing up for what is right, even when
it's unpopular, difficult, or risky. It requires acting in accordance with one's
values and integrity, even when facing social pressure, ridicule, or personal
consequences.
3. Social Courage: This type refers to the ability to be oneself, express one's
opinions, and advocate for others in social situations, even when facing
potential criticism, rejection, or social exclusion.
4. Intellectual Courage: This involves the willingness to question one's own
beliefs, explore challenging ideas, and learn from mistakes, even when it's
uncomfortable or goes against the status quo.
5. Emotional Courage: This refers to the ability to acknowledge and feel a full
range of emotions, both positive and negative, without judgment or
suppression. It also involves expressing emotions honestly and openly.
6. Spiritual Courage: This involves facing life's challenges, including questions
about faith, purpose, and meaning, with resilience and a sense of inner
strength, often in the face of adversity or doubt.
7. Creative Courage: This refers to the ability to take risks, experiment, and
innovate, even with the possibility of failure. It's about pushing boundaries
and pursuing new ideas.
8. Disciplined Courage: This involves the determination and willpower to
persevere through difficult tasks, setbacks, and challenges, maintaining focus
and commitment over time.
9. Everyday Courage: This encompasses the many small acts of courage that
people demonstrate daily, such as speaking up against injustice, offering
support to others, or making difficult decisions with integrity.
10. Empathetic Courage: This involves the willingness to understand and
connect with others' experiences, even when they differ from one's own, and
to act with compassion and understanding.

Will and Reason

The moral person is endowed with an intellect and will. The "will" is what "disposes"
what the "the intellect proposes." Reason conducts the study, research,
investigation, and fact-finding. It uses logic, the principle of Consistency, and avoids
fallacious reasoning to come up with a truthful and accurate proposition. In a
research study, the product or work of reason is the body of facts gathered,
organized, synthesized, and evaluated. The job of the will is to make a decisive
conclusion. The will is the faculty of the mind that is associated with decision-
making. It's the one that says yes or no. This author says this, that author says that
all others are saying the same thing. Now, decide with your will what you yourself
should say or think.
Decision making which is an activity of the will can be developed. Early in life, like
children, one should already be given the opportunity to exercise his will, like being
trained to make choices from alternative. Do you want to eat or not? Rice or bread?
Coffee or tea? This is true of societies where a culture of choice give opportunities
for the development of the will. A culture of spoon-feeding does not develop the will.
Banking education, a method of teaching where the teacher simply deposits facts
and concepts and withdraws the same period during quizzes and tests without
encouraging the students to think and reflect, does not promote the development of
the will.
Jean Paul Sartre, the French Philosopher, and the most existentialist was popular
saying that an individual person is nothing until he/she starts making decisions.
What ultimately constitutes who a person is are his/her decisions. The essence of
being a person equals his/her bundle of decisions. Apparently, the mark of the
maturation of culture is manifested through the development of a culture of moral
strength or virtue or will power or its free will. "Free virtue, or will Wil is the
"capacity of rational a course of action from agents to choose among various
alternatives."
Free will is the ability to choose between different actions unimpeded, the possible
courses of power or right to act, speak, or think as one wants. It is the power of self-
determination. When the will is free, there is freedom.
To Hornedo (1972), the stuff of the freewill is a multi-dimensional power, energy, or
strength. One is free to the degree that has energy, that is, physically free to the
degree that he is physically strong, and so on.
Emphasis is made on what freedom is, and not on what it is not. To say that one is
free when there is an absence of an obstacle is to give a picture of a weak person
who cannot walk to get out of his room despite an open door. Freedom must not
only be understood as the absence of obstacles, it must be an autonomous energy.
It is useless talking about being free to move, and walk if you have not strength to
move or walk. It is useless saying you are free to go to Manila by bus, if you have no
money for your fare. Freedom implies power, energy, strength in all human
dimensions, as the stuff of freedom. A free person is one who is physically healthy
and strong, psychologically normal, financially stable. It is useless shouting in the
streets for "economic freedom" if one is economically weak. In terms of morality,
moral strength is moral freedom. Morally strong people would not allow a tyrant to
thrive or last long. In the words of Jose Rizal is the statement, "There can be no
tyrants where there can be no slaves."

The Courage To Be
"Purity of heart is to will one thing," says Kierkegaard. But to "will one thing" needs
courage. According to Paul Tillich (1952), (C)ourage is self-affirmation 'in-spite-of,
that is in spite of that which tends to prevent the self from affirming itself." Courage
is "the affirmation of being inspite of non-being" This implies affirming, accepting
oneself inspite of one's defects, lack, or imperfections, affirming the world we live in
inspite all that it lacks. In specific terms, courage is affirming, allowing the drug
addict or drug dependent to live in spite of his drug addiction. "Our greatest glory is
not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall." Courage is not giving up
because of setbacks and failures. It is keeping right on keeping on. In politics,
courage is affirming or accepting one's people in spite of their ignorance, and
poverty. Political will means the courage to promote the greatest good of the
greatest number in spite of their selfishness, greed, and unruly behavior.
Commitment, engagement, fidelity, and authentic existence are all forms of
"affirmation of being inspite of non-being," Courage is affirming the world in spite of
its tragedies. The last line in Desiderata says it so, "(w)ith all its sham, drudgery and
broken arms, it is still a beautiful world.

Moral Imagination
Moral imagination, in ethics, the presumed mental capacity to create or use
ideas, images, and metaphors not derived from moral principles or immediate
observation to discern moral truths or to develop moral responses. Some defenders
of the idea also argue that ethical concepts, because they are embedded in history,
narrative, and circumstance, are best apprehended through metaphorical or literary
frameworks.
In his The Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759), the Scottish economist and
philosopher Adam Smith described an imaginative process essential not only to
understanding the sentiments of others but also to moral judgment. Through an
imaginative act, one represents to oneself the situation, interests, and values of
another person, generating thereby a feeling or passion. If that passion is the same
as that of the other person (a phenomenon Smith refers to as “sympathy”), then a
pleasing sentiment results, leading to moral approval. As individuals across society
engage their imaginations, an imaginative point of view emerges that is uniform,
general, and normative. This is the viewpoint of the impartial spectator, the
standard perspective from which to issue moral judgments.
The Anglo-Irish statesman and writer Edmund Burke was perhaps the first to use the
phrase, “moral imagination.” For Burke, moral concepts have
particular manifestations in history, tradition, and circumstance. In Reflections on
the Revolution in France (1790), he suggested that the moral imagination has a
central role in generating and recollecting the social and moral ideas that, when
crystallized into custom and tradition, complete human nature, stir the affections,
and connect sentiment with understanding. In the early 20th century, and with a
nod to Burke, the American literary critic Irving Babbitt proposed the moral
imagination as the means of knowing—beyond the perceptions of the moment—a
universal and permanent moral law. Assuming a distinction between the one and
the many, Babbitt contended that the absolutely real and universal unity could not
be apprehended; rather, one must appeal to imagination to develop insight into
stable and permanent standards to guide one through constant change. That
imagination might be cultivated through poetry, myth, or fiction was an idea of
Babbitt later taken up by the American social critic Russell Kirk.
Since the late 20th century, philosophers, including business ethicists, also have
shown interest in moral imagination. Mark Johnson, for example, argued that moral
understanding relies on metaphorical concepts embedded in larger narratives.
Moreover, ethical deliberation is not the application of principles to specific cases
but involves concepts whose adaptable structures represent types of situations and
modes of affective response. Furthermore, moral conduct demands that
one cultivate one’s perception of the particularities of individuals and circumstances
and develop one’s empathetic abilities. To those ends, the appreciation
of literature has an essential role.
In business ethics, Patricia Werhane suggested that the moral imagination is
necessary to ethical management. Beginning with the recognition of the
particularity of both individuals and circumstances, the moral imagination allows
one to consider possibilities that extend beyond given circumstances, accepted
moral principles, and commonplace assumptions.

Social Role
Social roles are the specific patterns of behavior, expectations, and responsibilities
associated with an individual's position or function within a group or society. These
roles are often learned and reinforced through socialization and influence how
individuals interact with others and within different contexts.
Key aspects of social roles:
 Definition:
Social roles are sets of behaviors, norms, and expectations associated with a
specific status or position in society.
 Examples:
Common social roles include parent, child, teacher, student, employee, manager,
partner, friend, and even those related to hobbies or interests.
 Multiple roles:
Individuals often occupy multiple statuses and roles simultaneously, which can lead
to role conflict or strain.
 Influence:
Social roles are shaped by societal norms, cultural values, and expectations, and
they can impact individual behaviors, self-perception, and interactions with others.
 Socialization:
Individuals learn about and internalize the expectations associated with different
social roles through socialization processes, such as family, education, and social
interactions.
 Impact on behavior:
Social roles guide how individuals behave in specific situations, and they provide a
framework for understanding and interpreting the actions of others.
 Status:
A social role is often linked to a specific status, which is a position or rank in a social
structure.
 Role expectations:
Each role has associated expectations, which are the norms, behaviors, and
responsibilities that are socially approved for those in that position.
 Role enactment:
How individuals actually behave in a role, which may vary depending on the
individual's personality, skills, and the specific context.

Free Will vs. Moral Imagination

Free will and moral imagination, while related, are distinct concepts. Free will refers
to the capacity to make choices and act on them, while moral imagination involves
the ability to envision ethical possibilities and consider the consequences of actions,
often beyond what is immediately apparent or prescribed. Essentially, free will is the
power to choose, while moral imagination is the capacity to choose well.
Here's a more detailed breakdown:
Free Will:
 Definition:
The ability to make choices that are not predetermined or coerced, allowing
individuals to be the authors of their actions.
 Core Idea:
Individuals have the power to choose between different courses of action and are
responsible for the consequences of those choices.
 Connection to Moral Responsibility:
Free will is often seen as a necessary condition for moral responsibility, as it
suggests that individuals can be held accountable for their actions when they have
the freedom to choose otherwise.

Moral Imagination:
 Definition:
The capacity to envision ethical possibilities and consider the broader implications
of actions, including the perspectives of others and potential consequences.
 Core Idea:
It involves stepping outside of immediate situations and considering how actions
might affect others, both in the present and future.
 Examples:
This could involve imagining oneself in another person's situation, considering the
long-term impact of a decision, or finding creative solutions to ethical dilemmas.
 Connection to Free Will:
While free will provides the capacity to act, moral imagination guides how that
capacity is used, helping individuals make choices that are not only free but also
ethically sound.
In essence:
 Free will is the foundation for agency, the ability to act.
 Moral imagination is a tool for navigating the ethical landscape, helping
individuals make informed and responsible choices within that framework.
While free will is often seen as a necessary condition for moral responsibility, it is
moral imagination that allows individuals to exercise that responsibility in a
meaningful and ethical way. A person with free will but limited moral imagination
might make choices that are free but not necessarily wise or ethical. Conversely,
someone with strong moral imagination can use their free will to make choices that
are both free and morally sound.

REFERENCES:
 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moral_courage
 https://medium.com/illumination/facing-fear-746ca1c05a6d
 https://soniamcdonald.com.au/2023/10/22/bravery-vs-courage-6-types-of-
courage-to-know/
 https://sites.google.com/ctu.edu.ph/gec-ethics/chapter-iii-the-human-act/
lesson-5-the-difference-between-reason-will
 https://www.britannica.com/topic/moral-imagination
 https://study.com/learn/lesson/social-roles.html
 https://www.ucl.ac.uk/~uctytho/dfwFischer2.html