A raft or a pyramid: On the nature of intellectual courage

Abstract

The subject matter of the article is the problem of intellectual courage. Its origins can be traced from philosophical ethics, the psychology of morality, virtue epistemology, and the ethics of science. Intellectual courage represents the limit of reasonable fearlessness completing the continuum of “bravery – boldness – courage”. Intellectual courage is an epistemic virtue that ensures the development of knowledge (the discovery and justifica­tion of new theories, risky experiments and inventions) in the face of uncertainty and risk. The intellectual courage as an act of a selfless gift demonstrates the special epistemic sta­tus of the giver and his or her distance from the community. Being unreduced to the qual­ities of personal character, intellectual courage embodies a particular communicative phe­nomenon on the boundary of science and society: the creative loneliness.