What Does it Mean to Be Courageous?
With a consideration of Sir Walter Scott's novel, Ivanhoe. First presented in a public seminar at the Aesthetic Realism Foundation, New York City.

Growing up, I thought courage was either an extraordinary heroic act like rescuing someone, or being honest in a difficult situation where you put yourself on the line. And neither of these was for me. I did not feel courageous—instead I saw it as prudent and smart to get what I could from people and the world, and be safe. But I did not respect myself, and felt very consciously at times that I was a coward.

Aesthetic Realism sees courage in a completely new and kind way; courage is in behalf of the largest desire of man, to like the world, and it begins with how we think. In his Definitions and Comment; Being a Description of the World, Mr. Siegel defines courage as:

The belief that the way things are is not against oneself, and therefore that these things should not be gone away from.

That means that a man needs to feel, with all the facts present, that the world will do him good. As Mr. Siegel says in the comment to his definition, "Courage is a love of the external." The study of Aesthetic Realism brought out this desire in me. I had felt the "external" was against me, and while I tried to appear like a nice guy with a smile for everyone, inside I was conniving and ambitious to get ahead.

The most cowardly thing in a man, I learned, is his desire for contempt, which Aesthetic Realism describes as the "disposition in every person to think he will be for himself by making less of the outside world." Contempt is that in a man that says we better beat other people out before they do so to us. Contempt can make one bluster, but inevitably it makes us narrow, timid and mean.

I will speak about my own life and what I am proud to be learning in classes taught by Class Chairman, Ellen Reiss. I will also discuss passages of a great novel that says so much about courage: Ivanhoe, written by Sir Walter Scott in 1819. Ivanhoe takes place in 12th century England, a time of intense unrest. This was after the Norman invasion, and the Saxon people were being ransacked by the nobility. Scott portrays valiant knights and brave women; there are terrible villains whom they must fight. I think people have been so stirred by Ivanhoe because it shows both courage and cowardice in people—every character can teach us about ourselves.

Mr. Siegel comprehended Walter Scott's work and his life beautifully. He said Scott had a "courageous mind," and in a 1951 lecture titled "The World; or, Walter Scott and Poetry" he said:

Walter Scott is one of the between thirty and forty greatest writers of the world....When I talk of a World Great Writer...I'm very careful about what I'm saying: some person who has taken the variety of the world into himself with grace, also with power....If you look at those novels...the notion of one mind having all this come forth from it, makes you prouder of yourself. It staggers you with respect for man.

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