Philosophy and Courage

This article proposes the first conceptual coordinates for a renewal ofthe concept of courage. By distinguishing two forms of conceptualizingcourage (as a male and military virtue based upon knowledge, on the oneside, and as an element of becoming a subject constitutive of truth, on theother) that originate in Plato, it shows how one of these forms was takenup by an Aristotelian strand within the history of philosophy, whereasthe other leads from Plato through Hegel and ultimately to Lacan andBadiou. The central thesis is that today it is the latter logically femaleversion of courage that might be useful and even needed for rethinkingnot only contemporary forms of political action but subjectivization ingeneral. The article suggests that a rendering of such a concept of couragemust be conceived of as a specific form of working with anxiet