Sometimes even to live is an act of courage.
Seneca.
Is kicking your enemy into a large well after
screaming “This is Sparta” the Hellenistic
embodiment of courage?
Well, it could be, looking at the Greek mythological
heroes like Achilles and Hector, and their
bravery on the battlefield.
But the definition of courage doesn’t stop
there, as far as the Stoics are concerned.
As a matter of fact, there are many different
philosophical ideas about what courage really is.
This video is a short essay about how different
philosophies define the virtue of courage.
Now, if we want to be courageous according
to Stoic ethics, does that mean that we have
to become these fearless warlords as we see
in movies about the ancient Greeks, or do
we have to become the hero that saves the
princess?
Not, necessarily.
Courage is a Stoic virtue.
This means that courage is part of what Stoics
call eudaimonia, which means flourishing,
and is regarded as the end goal.
It’s important to notice that, according
to the Stoics, eudaimonia equals life in accordance
with nature, which is regarded as an optimal
way for human beings to live.
When we look at the Stoic definition of courage,
we discover that it’s subdivided into endurance,
confidence, high-mindedness, cheerfulness,
and industriousness.
We can apply these characteristics in all
kinds of situations.
We could be very courageous doctors or very
courageous YouTube content creators.
As long as we do it confidently, with positive
energy, and in a way that’s disciplined.
This is the key to success.
We can cultivate Stoic courage by controlled
adversity, also known as askesis, through
which we gradually expose ourselves to dispreferred
indifferents.
In this way, we become more confident, strong,
and skilled.
Ethically, courage ought to be directed toward
pursuits that are in favor of the common good.
Preferably, things that are conformable to
our own inborn nature, and the nature of our
environment.
Thus, the Stoic hero is a virtuous hero.
Now, Nietzsche was a German philosopher who
valued courage very highly.
According to him, courage is the main ingredient
to become, what he called, the overman or
übermensch.
The overman is an individualist who has succeeded
to free himself from the master-slave morality
and lives self-sufficiently while following
his own unique path.
“God is dead,” declared Nietzsche, meaning
that we’ve arrived in a secular age in which
God can no longer provide us with answers.
In a similar way, Albert Camus saw institutionalized
religions as a form of philosophical suicide,
and submitting to them would mean that we
refuse to see reality for what it truly is:
meaningless and absurd.
Nietzsche, as well as Camus, thought that
the right way to live as human beings is to
create our own values and live by them, instead
of adopting values of certain belief systems
and ideologies, which, in the end, only exploit
us and rob us of our intellectual conscience.
When we decide to set ourselves free from
the ‘herd mentality,’ and truly forge
our own path, we need an immense amount of
courage.
Because we have to break the chains of fear
and convention.
And by doing so, we’re likely to encounter
resistance from our environment.
Simply put: courage is to become who we are.
The Buddha had a slightly different view of
courage.
There is this common misunderstanding that
Buddhist monks are a bunch of cowards that
hide in their monasteries while renouncing
life.
The renunciation of life is partly true in
Buddhism, as it is the renunciation of certain
parts of life, also known as samsara.
Samara is the wheel of suffering and involves
all cravings and desires and pleasures that
lead to suffering.
By ‘taking refuge’ in Buddhism, we seek
to emerge from samsara, by giving up a great
deal that conventionally makes life pleasurable.
For the regular person, giving up so many
things means a great deal of pain and suffering.
And this is the irony: one has to go through
the pain of giving up short-term pleasure
and devoting oneself to a life of practice
and discipline, to become free of pain.
Thus, embarking on the path of enlightenment
is a very brave thing to do.
Part of the path of enlightenment is overcoming
our fears.
Because a truly enlightened being has no fear.
And in order to overcome fear, we have to
face it.
This is especially true for the fear of death.
When the Buddha experienced the harsh reality
of life, he chose not to be sheltered from
it, but to acknowledge suffering, and accept
it.
Thus, in Buddhism courage means that we dare
to see reality for what it is, and transform
our fear and suffering into a path to awakening.
Philosopher Alan Watts, who was a scholar
of Zen, spoke about a metaphysical courage,
which is basically the awareness that all
manifestations of existence are a show.
So, we approach life how we approach a movie.
This means that on the one hand we get tangled
up in life, and experience fear because everything
that happens appears real to us.
But on the other hand, we can see the illusion
for what it is.
Then, life is no more frightening than playing
a video game.
According to Watts, this is what the Samurai
were after when they were studying Zen.
They wanted this metaphysical courage so nothing
would scare them.
This is easier said than done.
And when we put this idea into practice we
discover that our bodies still react to the
things we perceive as scary.
We still feel fear.
Now, the key to dealing with this fear is
not fearing fear and seeing these sensations
as a part of the illusion.
The opposite is the act of worrying, which
is a vicious cycle that is absolutely useless.
The cause of worrying is the illusion that
we believe that by thinking we can control
the future, which isn’t the case.
Thus, in this context, courage is the ability
to simply letting the show play out as it
plays out.
The last form of courage I’d like to explore
is a nice add-on to the previous one.
The founder of Stoicism, Zeno of Citium, once
had a teacher called Crates of Thebes, who
was the most well-known cynic at that time.
Crates saw that Zeno had difficulties putting
aside his shame.
So, he let his pupil walk around with a pot
of lentil soup.
Lentils as a dish were looked down upon because
it was seen as food for peasants.
Because he saw Zeno struggling and ashamed
doing this assignment, Crates broke the pot
with his staff, and Zeno ran away in embarrassment
with the lentil soup flowing down his legs.
“Why run away, my little Phoenician?
Nothing terrible has befallen you,” Crates
said.
He wanted to teach Zeno the art of shamelessness,
and the freedom that comes with that.
This freedom is very well portrayed by Crates’
teacher Diogenes of Sinope, who lived in a barrel.
Alexander the Great was very interested in
Diogenes and traveled a long way to meet him.
He asked Diogenes what he could do for him
because with his wealth and power he could
get him anything that the empire had to offer.
Diogenes looked at him and answered: “can
you please step aside because you’re blocking
my sun.”
Diogenes’ lifestyle granted him the possibility
to be independent.
He didn’t need the approval of other people
nor the help of the most powerful man on earth.
But it took him great courage to live such
a radical life.
According to the Cynics, real courage means
that we simply don’t give a damn about external
things, including what people think and say
about us, and don’t let them stop us from
living how we want to live.
A courageous cynic is shameless.
All in all, the human experience is full of
fear, which can block us from living even
the most ordinary of lives.
That’s why it’s important to cultivate
courage, so we can live more happily and freely.
Or at least, so we can cope with the predicament
of being involuntarily thrown into this world.
As Albert Camus stated: “sometimes it takes
more courage to live than to shoot yourself.”
Thank you for watching.
