history of fear (4)

Fear Reconstructions in History

Any philosophical inquiry into "fear" (with as diverse of meanings that it has)--has to include a historical and philosophical look at what people (e.g., like Hobbes) have done with the notion of "fear." In modern W. thought/philosophy, Thomas Hobbes (18th century) is a leading figure in this reconstruction. Today, there are a few thinkers, like myself, also involved in deconstructions and reconstructions of "fear." I just found this Abstract of a paper in Russian, that I wish was in English, because it looks fascinating, so I thought I would share the Abstract here (published in 2017 in Journal of Philosophy 21(4), 602-11. 

10946235269?profile=RESIZE_710x

--------

Certainly this raises interesting questions, as part of a discourse and set of debates (mostly in social philosophy) as to what is the nature and role of "fear" in human societies and what should it be for optimal and healthy functioning? I think Hobbes, amongst others, was trying to make a more positive association for fear and even for adopting a fear-based positioning in terms of motivational priorities in the ways to construct a so-called rational (modern state)--society. There are lots of problems in my way of thinking about this strategy on his part, and it seems this Russian academic also has his problems with Hobbes. 

In my own Fear Management Systems theory (FMST), I have classified this fear-positivism manouever as 'common' for the last few hundred years, and especially common in the late 20th century into the 21st century. But I have also noted, both its valuable contribution and its potential pathological shadow dimension, based on FMST. Hobbesian thinking is a means of fear management itself--that is, a system of understanding and managing fear--with a particular agenda, in a particular historical and ideological context. Thus, it is not so simple to just say, oh, now we have not just irrational fear (the common view)--but there is a rational fear too. Not so simple, and that move of Hobbes and many others who follow this fear-positivism ideology do not even realize they are using an ideology to construct within, in order to rationalize "fear" and that itself can be very problematic for a lot of reasons, beyond the scope of my short blogpost here. I classify Hobbesian fear-thinking (philosophy) as FMS-4 --based on a spectrum of FMSs (i.e., fear management systems evolved from the beginning of human consciousness, history and before)--whereby, I see the spectrum having 10 identifiable FMSs 0-9. For more on my classification system, you can go to Fisher (2010). 

Reference

Fisher, R. M. (2010). The world's fearlessness teachings: A critical integral approach to fear management/education for the 21st century. Lanham, MD.: University Press of America/Rowman & Littlefield.

 

Read more…

4361971352?profile=RESIZE_710x

This is the inside book cover (from the publisher, Oxford University Press, NY, 2004). Author: Corey Robin, "Fear: The History of a Political Idea". 

I share this with you all discussing Hobbes, and philosophical history issues re: passions, emotions, fear, etc. I appreciate the erudite philosophical wonderings you are all offering there in the FM ning. If I had time I'd join in more, but I have a book ms. needing to be completed. Just to say, I have not studied philosophy like many of you in this discussion, but I browse bits from it, and travel across multiple disciplines to gather my views on "fear" in history etc. What intrigued me so much about Robin (2004) was that he is he first author in history of thought, that I know of, to re-frame "fear" as a discourse into an "idea"-- and that changes everything from the total focus on fear as feeling, emotion, etc. His writing on Hobbes (Part 1, pp. 27-50) is something I have read several times over the years, to glean my understanding... some of you may want to check out this reference, if you haven't already. (Note: I also don't agree with all of Robin's approach to fear, either). 

 

Read more…

Dr. Jinmin Lee was a Korean graduate of Politics Department of Brandeis University, USA, and has written a most valuable contribution to fear management literature in their doctorate dissertation: "The Faces of Fear: Cross-Cultural Dialogues on Fear and Political Community" 2014

Anyone interested in the interrelationship between fear and politics, especially the imaginary of fear of political philosophers (E. and W.)--this dissertation is going to be of great interest. I offer the dissertation here in pdf (link above), with the following Abstract: 

"Inspred by the hopes of better understanding and managing fear in our political lives, this dissertation engages Western and Chinese thinkers in a cross-cultural dialogue about fear. Influenced by the Enlightenment portrayal of fear, we tend to think fear as the great evil of civilization and the greatest enemy of freedom. This research shows that this way of thinking about fear is not the only one that is plausible or available to us. In order to understand what is missing from our current understanding of fear, this dissertation explores parallels among six philosophers who represent diverse attitudes to fear and political community. The six philosophers are grouped in three pairs, each of which includes one Western and one Chinese thinker: the moralists Aristotle and Confucius; the realists, Hobbes and Han Fei; and the Enlighteners, Montesquieu and Lian Qichao. From the dialogue among these thinkers, the thesis shows how the concept of fear has changed its character; how fear has developed critical relationships with justice, equality and liberty; and how fear has been related to the different ways of political life. At the same time, by highlighting each voice's strengths and weaknesses, this cross-cultural dialogue enables us to see how each theory may hide sources of fear within itself and how, ironically, they sometimes inflate the fears that they were designed to tame. Contemporary liberals, in particular, need to learn that there is much that is missing in our current understanding of fear and how these limitations may undermine their efforts to promote individual liberty and security. In this regard, these different faces of fear point both to a richer portrait of fear and a better understanding of how to handle it." 

*****

I just published a Tech Paper 83 .pdf (involving Lee's work).

 

Read more…

 The upcoming book Philosophy of Fear is a philosophical manual developed by me to aid human persons overcome the existential limitations imposed on humanity by fear. In this book, I recognizes two categories of fear: The positive and the negative and I blamed all forms of negative activities of human persons to negative fear, while I attributes all aspects of positive developments to positive fear.

The tenet of this book is that; there is fear everywhere and that this fear is fundamental to all beings. Hence, philosophy of fear as a philosophical school of thought, ought to be given its own seat in the educational environment with its unique brand name: "Philosophy of Fear" or "Fearism". As a book designed to investigate the nature, scope and the role of fear in human society, philosophy of fear is out to offer expanding opportunities to the study of fear and its related challenges.

In suggesting a workable methodology to the solution to fear problems, i adopted unification-complementary approach in advancing my philosophical arguments, where fear and fearless/courage (the opposites) are investigated in a unified and in a complementary manner in order to have a complete knowledge about fear. I am of the opinion that, unless opposites are  taken into consideration, enquiry is incomplete.

In making fearful/fearless decisions therefore, the book uses love-courage as a panacea for decision making within the framework of Fearism. In this expanding investigation, I incidentally ended up in place where all fearful things are found which I refered to as in this book, "Fear Territory". Thus, fear territory is an open ended research zone that can accommodate all fearologists or any body who wants to study fear.

Such words like: faculty of fear, fear coalition, fear conflicts, amalgamation of fear, fear climax, potentiality of fear, history of fear, negative fear expeller, etc, have been coined to demonstrate the workings and the operational patterns of fear.

The book is an interpretative, analytical, explanatory, logical and of course, philosophical guide to the intrigues of fear and how it can be overcome. I urge you all to be ready to grasp your copy.

Author: Michael Eneyo.

Read more…