Post by graceyichen on Oct 3, 2015 9:04:09 GMT
I think it takes courage to do anything right. Even though integrity is what I believe a quintessential virtue, I think one must have courage in order to carry out integrity.
Like opposite forces, as humans, we try to improve ourselves with what we can learn through our intelligence, but the knowledge we invent or discover often collide with our nature as animals. For example, we come up with ideas like being selfless, loyal, and generous even though it is our instinct to look after ourselves when there is competition or life risks. I think it's also in our animal nature to stay with the crowd, fit in with everyone else, because we're pack animals. But I feel what's different about humans, having intelligence and all, is that we have the ambition to be different (famous, to be remembered...). I mean, there are fights between animals to decide who becomes king, but that's part of their life pattern, they're not challenging anything, they don't change. Humans do, that's why we progress, build our knowledge, create civilizations and advance.
With all that said, my point was to support my argument of courage being a quintessential virtue:
To choose to listen to what our minds have the intelligence of understanding instead of giving over to our animal nature takes courage. I think this overall covers a lot of situations across generations. To sacrifice in battle, to fight a monster, to drop everything and take a shot at your dreams, to stand up for someone when everybody disagrees, to confess the truth even if it'll backfire on yourself, to be who you are in front of people despite their weird looks, to not get lazy and keep training...it takes courage to overcome our animal nature or comfort zone, and do what we believe to be worth doing. I mean, with life being unpredictable, having no answers and all, sometimes it takes courage to do anything.
So I think courage is quintessential because you need it in order to start having other virtues. What do you think?
Like opposite forces, as humans, we try to improve ourselves with what we can learn through our intelligence, but the knowledge we invent or discover often collide with our nature as animals. For example, we come up with ideas like being selfless, loyal, and generous even though it is our instinct to look after ourselves when there is competition or life risks. I think it's also in our animal nature to stay with the crowd, fit in with everyone else, because we're pack animals. But I feel what's different about humans, having intelligence and all, is that we have the ambition to be different (famous, to be remembered...). I mean, there are fights between animals to decide who becomes king, but that's part of their life pattern, they're not challenging anything, they don't change. Humans do, that's why we progress, build our knowledge, create civilizations and advance.
With all that said, my point was to support my argument of courage being a quintessential virtue:
To choose to listen to what our minds have the intelligence of understanding instead of giving over to our animal nature takes courage. I think this overall covers a lot of situations across generations. To sacrifice in battle, to fight a monster, to drop everything and take a shot at your dreams, to stand up for someone when everybody disagrees, to confess the truth even if it'll backfire on yourself, to be who you are in front of people despite their weird looks, to not get lazy and keep training...it takes courage to overcome our animal nature or comfort zone, and do what we believe to be worth doing. I mean, with life being unpredictable, having no answers and all, sometimes it takes courage to do anything.
So I think courage is quintessential because you need it in order to start having other virtues. What do you think?