Thread: Courage
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Old 10-10-2008, 11:11 PM   #15 (permalink)
animenagai
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Please define courage in your own words.

i think there are 2 forms of courage, the lack of fear and overcoming fear. the latter is more impressive because courage is a virtue therefore there should be some sort of internal process going on. i don't count the lack of fear a virtue just as i don't see beauty as a virtue.

Tell me what it means to you personally.

i'm your classic over-thinker, so a lot of stuff scares me cos i can't 'just do it'. i think courage is something that i have developed throughout the years and only because i am aware of an action's drawbacks.

Do you see it as a great virtue or is it mostly overrated?

it is a virtue in itself, but yes, it can be overblown. it is brave to save a child who is drowning, but it is also brave to jump off a cliff or to start a war. either courage is a virtue measured only by its intensity (ie. it's bad to have both too much or too little of it), or it is one that is only good when paired with other virtues or intelligence. i think the consequential path (it is only good if it leads to good results) is a dangerous one. if by being nice to everybody causes me to get beat up, then the consequencialist may say that the right thing to do is not to be nice. that's obviously BS.

Are there different types of courage?

yes, as i said before there are 2 types. one is to overcome fear, the other one is the lack of fear. it's kind of like the difference between intelligence and ignorance.

Where does courage come from?

as with all virtues, there are only two answers. it's either intrinsically good or instrumentally good. if it's both, we'll just call it intrinsically good. i have a problem calling everything a social construct as eventually we would need some sort of intrinsic good for us to hang our hat on. courage itself may not be intrinsically good but it may be an immediate branch of something that is.

What's something you could do to make your life better right now by drawing forth a ton of courage?

improving my 'flirting prowess' i guess. i always over-think the courting stage of a relationship. it would be good if i can completely overcome these fears.
Those are my questions, but feel free to break the format and respond however you'd like.
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