The Role of Courage in Intellectual Work

Liliana Beatriz Irizar

Department of Philosophy, Sergio Arboleda University, Bogotá, Colombia.

DOI: 10.4236/psych.2014.59114                

Abstract

Intellectual life is not a thing apart from the humanizing and moralizing influences that moral virtues provide. Saint Thomas’s teachings about moral virtues suggest how essential he considers them for a flourishing speculative life. He makes all this very clear in the Second Part of the Summa Theologiae. The potential parts of fortitude which have a crucial role in intellectual work are patience, perseverance and magnanimity. In this article I show how these potential virtues act in speculative life.

Keywords

Moral Virtues, Intellectual Work, Courage, Patience, Constancy, Perseverance, Magnanimity, Presumption, Ambition, Vainglory, Obstinacy, Arrogance, Aristotle, Saint Thomas Aquinas

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

References

[1]	Aquinas, T. (1947). Summa Theologia. (Fathers of the English Dominican Province, Translation). Benziger Bros. Edition. http://dhspriory.org/thomas/english/summa/index.html
[2]	Aristotle (1993). De Anima (D. W. Hamlyn, translation). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
[3]	Aristotle (2009). Nicomachean Ethics (O. University, Translation). Oxford: Oxford World’s Classics.
[4]	John Paul, II. (1998). Fides et ratio (Vatican Translation). Boston: Pauline Books and Media.