Freedom's Virtues—Courage

Now we’ve looked at the virtues of integrity, responsibility, honesty, competence, productivity, and dignity, and conclude with courage, here.

One of the views implied by Ayn Rand in her discussions of the virtues is their social aspect, an emphasis I do not agree with. In my first article on the “Freedom Virtues,” “Integrity,” I identified the two lists of virtues Ayn Rand provided, first in her Journals, and secondly in The Virtue of Selfishness. While it is necessarily true that the relationships a virtuous individual will have with other individuals in a society will be different from the relationships an individual lacking virtue will have with other individuals, it is not those relationships that define the virtues—the difference in the relationships is a consequence of the virtue, which would be the same virtue if an individual lived on a desert island.

Rand describes courage in terms of one life in relationship to others:

“Integrity is that quality in man which gives him the courage to hold his own convictions against all influences, against the opinions and desires of other men; the courage to remain whole, unbroken, untouched, to remain true to himself. … The virtue of courage is the strength to face any threat and to fight back. Fight what? Nature, as well as other men when necessary. …the man of courage is the one who does not surrender.”

Courage Is Virtue In Action

The virtues are not social issues, they are the elements of one’s own character. In terms of ones own values and principles, one may hold integrity, responsibility, honesty, competence, productivity, and dignity as that which they aspire to, but without courage the virtues will languish as that which one desires, but never realizes.

It is, perhaps, lack of courage more than anything else, that prevents the virtuous in spirit from being the virtuous in practice. The source of courage is a ruthless adherence and confidence in reality, the absolute certainty that the only means to life and enjoyment of it, is to live and think only what one knows is right and true, and that any other course can only lead to regret and disaster.

Courage seldom requires us to fight other men and then only when other men are a direct and inescapable physical threat to us. Most of courage is pressing ahead in the pursuit of ones own objectively rational goals in the face of those things that cause doubt or fear—fear is almost always fear of the unknown.

Risk And The Unknown

Generally, we do not fear the known, however bad it is. After the ice-storm and power loss, we may dislike what we have to do and how we have to live until the power is restored, but we are not afraid of it. After we have received the unexpected notice and have lost our job, we may dislike the situation, but are not afraid of it, though one might worry about finding a new job. It is always the unknown we fear, the potential ice storm or the possibility of loosing our job, for example.

There is always the unknown because, in this world, nothing can be predicted absolutely. There is always the unexpected, there are always surprises. It is true because we are not omniscient. We cannot know everything, and in fact there will always be more we do not know, than we can ever know.

Because we cannot know everything, there is some risk in every choice we make and every action we take. The real world is a risky place, but neither risk or the unknown are things to fear.

The Certainties

To fear the unknown is to fear life itself. All the future is unknown, and the future is all that we live for. All our goals and aspirations are for the future. While we enjoy our lives at the moment we are experiencing them, the continuation of that experience is all future.

It is the unknown nature of the future that makes life an adventure, a source of continual discovery, wonder, and surprise, of discovering what we can achieve, of wonder that so much joy is available to us in this world, and surprise at every new thing we learn or discover.

There are dangers and risks in the world, but we can discover what they are, and learn how to protect ourselves from them, and learn how to recover from even the worst of the unexpected.

We cannot know the future nor foresee every possible risk we will face in life, but we know the principles that determine all things are absolute, and that the knowledge we have will apply in all future situations, which means, we know we have the competence to deal with any eventuality, that we are capable of handling any future danger or risk. That is our certainty.

Courage Is Self-confidence

Courage is not lack of fear, not being ignorant of danger and risk. Courage is not being immune to the proper feelings of fright and terror in the face of the frightening and terrifying. Courage is having the self-assurance that we are competent to deal with that which frightens and terrifies, that we have the knowledge and skills necessary to face every threat and overcome them.

Truly frightening and terrifying things are the exceptions in life; like “Pain,” they are non-essentials, not the issues about which we choose our values.

The kinds unknowns and risks most of us will face in life require courage, but for the independent individualist that courage ought to be present in every choice one makes, because of one’s certainly in their own competence and ability, especially when one’s objective is their own freedom.

Establishing one’s own freedom will be fraught with risk. The more valuable a thing is, the more risk there is in achieving or acquiring it and nothing is more valuable than one’s freedom. Perhaps the means to one’s freedom will require moving to a new country to escape the oppression of the one they are in. There is always risk in such a move and courage will be required to make it.

Perhaps the means to another’s freedom will require them to abandon all or most of their accumulated wealth to invest in a new enterprise with some risk of failure, which will require courage to do.

While no virtue is a social issue, including courage, the source of the fear and doubt many individualists need courage to face is other people. The concern for what other’s will think, how they will judge us, or even what they will do if we pursue our own freedom requires courage, sometimes a defiant courage, to overcome. It is courage to do what one knows is true and right no matter what anyone else things or how anyone else judges us.

If you are going to be free in this world, you are going to have to make yourself free, and it will take a great deal courage.