Lunch

Every Monday and Wednesday I usually have lunch with my brother and girlfriend. During these lunches we typically discuss what we did in class that day. Today, my brother, Ben, decided to bring up an issue that was discussed during his philosophy class, courage. I've decided to discuss it here since it was somewhat interesting to hear what his class had had to say about courage (and because I cannot think of much else to discuss). Someone in Ben's class had come to the conclusion that courage exists in the absence of fear, or that the "fearless" are extremely "courageous". Ben went on to say that the rest of the class generally agreed with this statement, something that my brother, my girlfriend and I could not do. In fact, the point this student made, the point that most of the class agreed on, makes absolutely no sense! Courage could not possibly exist without fear! If someone has absolutely no fear (something which is virtually impossible) then their actions could not possibly be courageous. If a man ran into a burning building in order to save a child, knowing that his life is in danger, he is being courageous. But if this same man has no concept of fear, and therefore does not realize or understand that his life is in danger, or if he simply does not care whether or not he dies, he is NOT being courageous. Why? Because being courageous is committing an act while overcoming the fear and danger it involves, not blindly doing something without any idea of what fear or consequence is. The students in his class also decided that an excess in courage equals overconfidence. I have to disagree with this as well. Courage and confidence are, simply put, not the same thing. A man may have the confidence to ask someone on a date, but that does not necessarily involve courage. Confidence would involve the idea of believing that one is "worthy" of a positive response from the other, while courage relates more to the ability to accept rejection. Of course, it depends on the situation and the individual, and at times there is a fine line between courage and confidence, but they are not the same thing. There is, of course, more to the discussion that took place in my brother's class, I just found it interesting how these individuals came about these conclusions about the idea of courage, and how easily they agreed with someone that clearly had no idea what they were talking about. This, however, is not an uncommon occurrence, but I'll leave it at that.

Vocabulary:
Thetic a : 1: Set forth dogmatically; prescribed 2: In Greek of Latin poetry, pertaining to or constituting the thesis; also, beginning with a thesis
Umbrage n : 1: Shade; shadow 2: That which affords shade; especially foliage 3: Offense; resentment and displeasure 4: A semblance or shadowy appearance