Courage for the truth

Courage is interesting, it is scattered across various fields where it can hinder in the short term, and help in the long term---and courage is rare in all fields. One may be born with courage, or it develops out of the circumstances of ones life.  And courage can be found among all classes--although it is not common.

Fear of error hinders many scientists and academics in going for the truth, and courage overcomes fear. You can be killed in your career by a thousand pin pricks. Being pedantic about the larger whole can cover up for lack of courage, picking apart things can be an avoidance of truths. This may be why big world-changing discoveries often happen outside the academic world.

Then there is what I call “dirty thinking,” that is, people who might see that the truth may hurt them so they deny the truth, or they may only vaguely sense that the truth will hurt them, or hurt their cause, so they deny, twist or block the truth. In this case courage looks like an odd sort of masochism, but it is pleasure we receive in the long run from the truth.  In the case of the military, it can even save lives to tell the truth about not knowing something you are supposed to know. 

Science, religion and art can all deny truth for lack of courage. I think it was Nietzsche who said that courage is more important than intelligence in finding the truth. Evidence is good, and necessary, but there exits more than one kind of evidence. It is courage that seems to be the thing required to apprehend the truth at first, with or without evidence. But qualities of courage are not just an adult virtue, children and autistics seem to have something like bold courage due to missing the adult awareness or empathy regarding others which can bring fear to speak the truth.