ABSTRACT
One of the minor ironies of the human condition is that where dangers do not exist, people often feel compelled to invent them. Thrill-seekers are commonly people whose lives, in their own estimation at least, are boring or unchallenging; they joyfully embrace carefully selected dangers as an antidote to dull monotony. But some thrill-seekers are looking for a subtler satisfaction: they want to prove to themselves or to others that they possess a courage which enhances their own value and sets them off from the crowd. Such an ambition might remind us of the heroes of history and legend, and of Aristotle’s claim that the brave man is inspired by a conception of the noble. Yet it is arguably a somewhat meretricious courage that exists primarily to display its own charms. Here the normal order of things seems reversed: instead of courage being mustered in order to pursue an independently desirable object, a goal is sought, or manufactured, to serve as a pretext for courage. This is wanting to be brave for the sake of it, rather than for the sake of something else.
