What is courage? What does it mean to be brave or to be a coward? Questions such
as these have been pursued in European thought at least since the time of Socrates,
and it is astonishing to see how little progress has been made in defining concepts of
this kind. Despite all the efforts of philosophers and of lexicographers, dictionaries
still content themselves to say, in essence, that courageous means brave and that
brave means courageous. For example, Webster ( 1965) takes the reader on the
following tour:

If a rare dictionary does manage to define one of these words without a vicious
circle, it will pay for it by not even attempting to capture the invariant. For example,
LDOTEL ( 1984) defines courage as follows:

courage = mental or moral strength to confront and withstand danger, fear,
or difficulty

It doesn't even try to say what "danger", "fear", and "difficulty" may have in
common, thus violating the fundamental principle of sound defining laid down by
Socrates on the very occasion of searching (with Laches) for a definition of courage
(or rather, of the Greek concept andreia, usually rendered in English as courage).

I meant to ask you not only about the courage of the heavily-armed soldiers, but
about the courage of cavalry and every other style of soldier; and not only who are
courageous in war but who are courageous in perils by sea, and who in disease, or
in poverty, or again in politics, are courageous; and not only who are courageous
against pain or fear, but mighty to contend against desires and pleasures, either
fixed in their rank or turning upon the enemy. There is this sort of courage--is there
not, Laches?

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