"In January 1986, NASA engineers knew the Space Shuttle Challenger's O-rings had never been tested in freezing temperatures. They recommended delaying the launch. Managers asked: Could the engineers prove it was unsafe? They couldn't-they could only say the system hadn't been designed for these conditions. Under pressure, the engineers withdrew their recommendation. The next morning, Challenger broke apart 73 seconds after launch, killing all seven astronauts."
"This wasn't a failure of reason. The engineers reasoned correctly about the O-rings. This was a failure of courage-they lacked the strength to stand firm against managerial and political pressure. No amount of additional rational analysis would have saved them. They needed something the ancient Greeks called andreia: spirited resistance, the capacity to hold ground under pressure. But our inherited philosophical framework can't quite see this distinction, because a Roman translation choice 2,000 years ago collapsed it."
In January 1986 NASA engineers knew the Space Shuttle Challenger's O-rings had not been tested in freezing temperatures and recommended delaying launch, but withdrew their recommendation under managerial pressure; Challenger disintegrated 73 seconds after launch, killing seven. The engineers reasoned correctly but lacked the courage—andreia—to withstand pressure. The Greeks distinguished arete (excellence tied to function) from andreia (courage of the spirited part). A Roman translation collapsed these distinctions into virtus, and Stoic thought further reduced excellence to rational control, eroding a pluralistic view of distinct functional virtues.
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