Yesterday I was awarded the “Courage Award” by the Heterodox Academy. Here is my short acceptance speech:
In the Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle identifies courage as the mean between cowardice and recklessness. A coward is afraid of too much and a reckless person is afraid of too little, but a courageous person is afraid only of what it is appropriate to be afraid of. Too many of us are cowards in the modern academy. We are afraid of the wrong things. We are afraid of being called a “-phobe” or an “-ist,” but somehow we are not afraid of failing in our duty to inquire openly and to teach honestly. Somehow we are not afraid to live an unvirtuous and dishonest life. If someone calls you a “-phobe,” I recommend using Epictetus’s method for dealing with insults. First ask yourself if he speaks truthfully or not. If he does, then thank him for pointing out a flaw in your character that you can work on. If not, you have no reason to listen to someone who speaks falsely, and you can simply ignore his comment. Mark carefully the difference between fact and opinion. Just because someone expresses the opinion that you are an “-ist” does not make it a fact. And remember how low the stakes are for us. Professor Fedir Shandor of Uzhhorod National University in Ukraine gives his lectures remotely from his position in the trenches. That is a courageous academic. Instead of Russian artillery barrages, all we have hurled at us are empty accusations by people who speak falsely. Thank you.
I was going to point out the same typo.
Also: I pretty much go with John Wayne’s somewhat less classic-referenced definition of courage: “courage is being scared to death and saddling up anyway.” Lots of applications of that in surgery. And now there are getting to be plenty in just normal everyday life.
Typo alert: *doesn't* make it a fact...
And, congratulations on both having courage and being acknowledged for it, Mr. Abbot.