From Paul Tillich's The Courage To Be

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What is courage? Courage is usually described as the power of the mind to overcome fear but in a philosophical case this definitions can be formed into a much greater understanding of ourselves as a whole. When it comes to the explanation of courage and its importance to all, whether it be non-being or even being, is essential when it comes to philosophy. With Paul Tillich, the author of the critically acclaimed novel The Courage to Be he clearly has a great mindset explaining how, when it comes to non-being and being, the importance of courage and how these can be elaborated into the unity of living and dying, but also with that explains the power of being and how anxiety also can affect our everyday lives as living beings. But even so…show more content…
By using courage to unify being and non-being everything would be much simpler according to Tillich. Even so it must be understood that courage itself is very important when it comes to being and non-being. Even so through pathological anxiety, vitality, and courage these truly help understand not only just the unity of living and dying but as well as anxiety and the power of being (pgs.59-78). Once you find that courage everything comes together. As can be seen by Tillich as soon as you are able to find the courage to go on the unity of being and non-being can be obtained. In order to find the power of being you must fight these anxieties first through courage and individualization. In order to find this courage you must confront the basic polar structure of being, that of self and world. I can be seen that these realms are interconnected and mutually influencing; self-affirmation “is not the courage to be as oneself, but the courage to be as a part” (p.105); as Tillich explains. You must also participate as well in order to truly affirm yourself. Another aspect that Tillich brings up is to also have the courage to transcend which he explains in chapter 6 of the novel. This is the courage to accept acceptance (p.143). And that is when you know you have finally unified being and
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