Kane Jiang
If emotions are evoked by the brain (I don't believe this, I am just trying to see from the point of view of most of psychology), then where does that leave bravery?
Bravery isn't an emotion, supposedly (I DO believe this) yet bravery in reality doesn't require much thought. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to be brave. Someone might argue with you that bravery requires a [mental] choice, but then that leaves bravery requiring a choice AND action and/or willpower. How can bravery be composed of two different things, when all throughout history bravery was referred to as ONE thing, perhaps one feeling or trait.
I believe bravery is either a feeling (and feelings are more general than emotions) or trait and while sometimes it can require a mental choice, sometimes instinct can make that choice for you.
Also, I thought bravery not being an emotion was unanimously agreed upon? At least by people in the medieval era (medieval Europe and even China). Sigh, if we have regressed from those times.
If science doesn't explain bravery not being an emotion, then that means something else made us know it
The term deserves a good analysis, doesn't it?
First, when one is NOT brave, there are two sides to the matter: it may be that circumstances are so repugnant that they overwhelm one's confidence to defeat them. Of course, at this point, we could say that it is exactly at this moment that bravery either shows up or doesn't. But then, if it doesn't show up in some and does in others, then why? Bravery at this point becomes a rather useless term, because it doesn't invite closer examination. When we go deeper, we find the conflict, the anxiety, the values a person has and the weight given them; we find the weakness there in its thwarting ability as it takes control. issuing orders for flight rather than fight. In THIS world, what may appear as a lack of bravery overtly, in behavior, belies the real drama beneath where one is, say, endowed with sensitivity others are not and the effort to overcome is much more profound. Here, I would contend is where the true accounting of bravery lies: It must be measured by the actuality that lies beneath, where, in the spirit of Virginia Woolf, the real human drama unfolds.
Second.......where does this go? Oh, she is so brave! IS she?? Is it so brave to be endowed with an inner world that is not confounded by anxiety, sensitivity, the nuances of emotional frailties, and so on? The brave ones--I admire brave acts, but I reserve judgment on people doing them.
