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NancyLebovitz comments on Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality discussion thread, part 17, chapter 86 - Less Wrong
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What are phoenixes trying to accomplish?
Do they have goals, or just drives? They're implied to be closer to animals than people.
In the same way (in HPMOR canon) Dementors are the projections/personifications of death pheonixes may be the personifications of courage or whatever.
[Maybe there's some sort of magical collective unconscious thing going on?]
Courage doesn't run on a model of "if you fail one test, you'll never get another chance".
Perhaps they are personifications of "The Call To Go On A Magical Quest Requiring Great Courage". But I admit it doesn't exactly roll off the tongue.
"Heroism" seems like a more succinct way of putting that, although it's a fairly specific sense of heroism.
"Heroism" has the same objection as does "Courage": You may get many chances to be heroic. "The Call etc" is a particular trope, and only occurs once per character.
"Campbellian heroism", perhaps. Though strictly speaking a Campbellian hero doesn't have to be a conventional hero -- the Thousand Faces/Hero's Journey pattern is more about growing into your potential than about saving people or defeating a specific Big Bad -- and both seem to be indicated here.
As I think I've said before, the specific construction of heroism that MoR is using seems to inherit a lot from Fate/stay night, and more specifically from the "Fate" and parts of the "Unlimited Blade Works" routes. The concept we're pointing to usually gets translated there as "superhero" or "hero of justice", but I'm not sure what the Japanese is, and in any case I've no idea if Nasu was using a conventional phrase or if he's using a specialization of a more general word the same way we are.
Maybe there's a limited supply of phoenixes and they just figure they can find better heroes if they keep trying out new people.
True, but death doesn't wear a cloak etc. The personifications of a concept don't necessarily have to model it perfectly,