When I learned Venn diagrams in elementary school, I thought it was a dumbest thing in the world. Putting things into circles and then seeing whether the circle’s cross each other or didn’t seem so stupidly obvious that the quizzes that only dummies wouldn’t be able to pass the quizzes. I’m pretty sure that everybody got an a on those quizzes when it came to Venn diagrams, which is not something that you could say about very many things in elementary school math.
But over the last 10 years, I find myself thinking and Venn diagrams about a lot of things in life. I suspect some of it is just by virtue of getting enough life experience to understand how to categorize things in a useful way. Just because you can put things into a category doesn’t mean you understand how useful that category is in relation to other things. Making a circle that says USA and another one that says NYC in itself is not super useful. It only becomes useful when we start framing those categories as questions.
I think it’s important to understand that how we frame the question influences how we see the category. I was thinking about the question of courage. If I were to ven diagram courage, my initial thought might be an intersection between the circle for fear and a circle for bravery, and courage is the intersection of the two. That diagram makes complete sense.
But it also begs the deeper question what do we mean by courage. And now I question whether or not courage can exist without fear. If this is a case, then courage is a circle inside the circle of fear.
How about cowardice, the opposite of courage? This seems more straightforward to me, since by practical definition a coward has given in to fear. So cowardice is a circle that sits inside the circle of fear.
So combining the two diagrams, we end up with both bravery and cowardice sitting inside the larger circle of fear.
But is this Venn diagram quite accurate? Cowardice and bravery are more defined by actions than thoughts. If you advance despite your fear, you’re brave; if you flee because of your fear, you’re a coward. I’m a given moment I think you choose one or the other, but the moment can be precarious,a razors edge. So I think the more accurate Venn diagram has the boundaries of bravery and cowardice touching but not crossing.
Looking at this version of the Venn diagram, I appreciate everything I learned constructing it. I got better definitions of bravery and cowardice, their relationships with fear, and their relationship with each other. It also gives me a greater appreciation for understanding fear as an emotion that contains potential actions: a brave one and a cowardly one.
But Venn diagrams are like statistics: they can hide as many ideas and information as they reveal. And one problem is that a category neatly encapsulated into a circle can lead us to isolate ideas that in reality are always interconnected.
Before, I argued that bravery and cowardice are actions, not emotions. But when it comes to those two concepts, it’s fair to ask: who decides? How do we determine if an action was brave or cowardly? Is it wisdom? Our peers? The results? Our own judgement? There’s certainly no shortage in history of brave people being called cowards, and other people showing uncharacteristic bravery. How do these analyses affect your Venn diagram?
As someone who first started studying martial arts in 1974, I’ve had plenty of time to think about bravery and cowardice, both my own and others. Like everyone else, I’ve had instances of cowardice that embarrassed me and times of courage that I’m still proud of. But contextualizing these moments is an important part of the learning process, otherwise we run the risk of these moments being more random than we might find comfortable. So for the sake of a consistent self view, all of us – especially martial artists! – should figure out where bravery and cowardice falls in the spectrum of everyday human experiences.
A Venn diagram tries to map out these contexts to see what’s happening. It simplifies relationships by distilling ideas into an easily understood essence that might help with understanding.
But at the same time, it’s clear to me how the very simplicity of Venn diagrams can hide complex nuances. This isn’t a slam against using Venn diagrams, but more a reminder that they have limitations, like any other tool. The appeal of visual tools is they can present a clear version of reality, but in the end it’s just another version.