Since the days when Don Quixote bravely rode out to fight windmills, courage has become detached from heroism. Ours is a post-heroic era; we have long since ceased to sacrifice our lives for a higher ideal. Today's calls to restore a supposedly homogeneous society stem solely from the incessant murmurings of the global rumour mill.
Rethinking courage in modern times requires breaking away from its definition as overcoming the fear of death. The question is no longer, ‘What is a person willing to die for?’ but ‘What desire are they unwilling to give up?’ This question branches out into reflections on Theodor W. Adorno, Walter Benjamin, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Friedrich Hölderlin, Heinrich von Kleist and Jacques Lacan. What guides us in these divergent considerations is the link between courage and the willingness to take risks. It is no longer the confrontation with death that constitutes this courage, but the negation of its omnipotence in favour of an unpredictability that enables a connection to truth.
Essay
Antonia Birnbaum teaches philosophy at Paris 8 University and at the University of Applied Arts Vienna. She works at the intersection of critical theory and French poststructuralist philosophy on politics and art. Most recent publications: Benjamin. Bonheur, Justice, Le vertige d’une pensée. Descartes corps et âme and Radikale Gleichheit. Rancière teilen.
“Birnbaum's thoughts are directed against accepting concrete powerlessness – and without any need for something like a heroic death.” – Vincent Sauer, Tagesspiegel
