Now Nicias steps in. Courage, he argues, is simply
“knowledgeofwhatisto befearedorhoped,either in
warorinanythingelse.”But Socratesfindsfaulthere,
too.Foronecanhavecouragewithoutperfectknowledge
of the future. Indeed, one often must.
The generals are stumped. The story ends with them
comingtonofinaldefinition.Butthereadercomestoa
possible one: Courage is strength in the face of
knowledgeofwhatistobefearedorhoped.Wisdomis
prudent strength.
Atleasttwokindsofcouragearerequiredinagingand
sickness.Thefirstisthecouragetoconfronttherealityof
mortality—thecouragetoseekoutthetruthofwhatisto
be feared and what is to be hoped. Such courage is
difficultenough.Wehavemanyreasonstoshrinkfromit.
But even more daunting is the second kind of
courage—thecourageto act onthetruthwe find.The
problemisthatthewisecourseissofrequentlyunclear.
Foralongwhile,Ithoughtthatthiswassimplybecause
ofuncertainty.Whenitishardtoknowwhatwillhappen,
itishard to knowwhat todo. Butthechallenge, I’ve
cometosee,ismorefundamentalthanthat.Onehasto
decide whether one’s fears or one’s hopes are what
should matter most.
IHADRETURNEDtoBostonfromOhio,andtomyworkat
thehospital,whenIgotalate-nightpage:JewelDouglass
wasback,unableto holdfooddownagain.Hercancer
was progressing. She’d made it three and a half
months—longerthanI’dthoughtshe’dhave,butshorter
than she’d expected. For a week, the symptoms had
mounted: they startedwith bloating, becamewaves of