Thanks Massimo. It’s a lovely dialog and worth reading! One correction: in both the recording and the transcript you say “ Notice how Nicias says that he is frustrated at not having found a good way to explain what courage is, but he is not about to give up!” but it is actually Laches that says that. Of course, that’s what you meant! I just thought some might be confused..
Finding the right words to describe our thoughts & intuitions about a topic is indeed a worthwhile challege to undertake. Perhaps courage is endurance accompanied by wisdom (knowledge) about the specific topic/activity undertaken? That way, IF we have the option, we can make a more appropriate judgement about whether or not to endure. For example, I may have knowledge in the domain of intra & interpersonal relationships, yet it wouldn't be courageous or wise for me to endure/persist in solving a physics problem without some knowledge about physics. Trial & error would only take me so far. They are non-overlapping magisteria (NOMA).
Vivian, I think endurance + wisdom is what the dialogue implicitly settles on, though technically it ends in aporia, as we shall see when the podcast resumes in the summer...
Thanks Massimo. It’s a lovely dialog and worth reading! One correction: in both the recording and the transcript you say “ Notice how Nicias says that he is frustrated at not having found a good way to explain what courage is, but he is not about to give up!” but it is actually Laches that says that. Of course, that’s what you meant! I just thought some might be confused..
Glenn, indeed, thanks for the correction! Yes, that is what I meant!
Finding the right words to describe our thoughts & intuitions about a topic is indeed a worthwhile challege to undertake. Perhaps courage is endurance accompanied by wisdom (knowledge) about the specific topic/activity undertaken? That way, IF we have the option, we can make a more appropriate judgement about whether or not to endure. For example, I may have knowledge in the domain of intra & interpersonal relationships, yet it wouldn't be courageous or wise for me to endure/persist in solving a physics problem without some knowledge about physics. Trial & error would only take me so far. They are non-overlapping magisteria (NOMA).
Vivian, I think endurance + wisdom is what the dialogue implicitly settles on, though technically it ends in aporia, as we shall see when the podcast resumes in the summer...