Philosophobia and the Philosophy of fear

POTENTIAL LEADERS FORUM 15^TH October 2015 WEEKLY LECTURE PREESNTED BY IWUNDU PETERKEVIN

PHILOSOPHOBIA AND THE PHILOSOPHY OF FEAR

  Philosophy is criticized for its uselessness, its non-practical contributions to human life. Within the politics of the success of the physical sciences, Philosophy is generally portrayed as being of no value to human beings. In spite of the protestation of philosophers, Philosophy is generally written off as a ‘valueless discipline’. Alexander Herzberg 1912 undertook an inquiry into the private lives of 30 philosophers. His intent was to ascertain why they [philosophers] are the way they are and why they behave the way they do. The outcome of his inquiry did not yield anything different from the ideas, the persons in the street associate with philosophers. Herzberg would readily point to the penniless philosophers like Karl Marx, Rousseau, Spinoza and others. There comes the question, of what relevance is philosophy to development of the society and human beings in general? Today, one could defend this legendary discipline that has really made itself known in the development of the world in general through many spheres of life, by viewing it with the scope of solutions it brings to the everyday problem of the universe. One of the so many problems the world has always witnessed is that of the FEAR FACTOR; of which centers today’s episode of POTENTIAL LEADERS FORUM FEAR

  Fear according to The Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English is “the feeling that you are in danger something bad may happen, or frighten you.” This means that, fear is a distressing emotion aroused by impending danger, evil, pain etc. Dominian sees it as a phobic state .this implies that most fears lead to phobia; a special kind of fear, an excessive or unreasonable fear that leads a person to avoid a particular object or situation that is perceived or imagined as dangerous. In Greek mythology, fear is depicted as a real and powerful deity. It was placed after Zeus and before other gods to portray its supremacy. Sparta also built a temple in honor of the god [fear]

CHARACTERISTICS OF FEAR When we fear, it shows sometimes physically through anxiety, dizziness, and shortness of breath, palpitation, and chest pain, weakness, trembling and flushing. Also shown through nervousness, cold, headache, blurry vision, ringing in the eyes, cramps, nausea, and frequent urination. TYPES OF FEAR COMMON PHOBIA Less grave and transitory fear experienced by any person at any time. It is not really seen as fear qua tale SPECIFIC FEAR Severe and persistent fear of a specific object or situation. A person can suffer from a specific phobia or suffer from more than one specific phobia KINDS OF SPECIFIC PHOBIA ▷ Traumatophobia………………………………………………….fear of injury ▷ Tropophobia………………………………………………………fear of changes ▷ Sociophobia……………………………………………………….fear of society or people ▷ Testophobia……………………………………………………….fear of taking test ▷ Rhabdophobia…………………………………………………….fear of being punished of criticized ▷ Scolionophobia…………………………………………………...Fear of school ▷ Phasmophobia…………………………………………………… fear of ghost ▷ Myctophobia………………………………………………………fear of darkness ▷ Necrophobia.......................................................................…fear of death ▷ Noctiphobia……………………………………………………….fear of night ▷ Kainophobia………………………………………………………Fear of anything new ▷ Isolophobia………………………………………………………..fear of being alone ▷ Clinophobia……………………………………………………….fear of going to bed ▷ Claustrophobia……………………………………………………fear of being in closed or in small spaces e.g. lifter, seminary etc. ▷ Agoraphobia…. Afraid to take risks. Most serious of all fears. fear of being in a position or situation in which escape might be difficult or help unavailable *and a host of others; too many to be written down. SOCIAL FEAR Persistent fear of social performance situation in which embarrassment may occur; avoiding exposure to unfamiliar people or possible scrutiny. This type of fear makes it difficult for the person involved to contribute much to the society. They become social misfits and burden to the society. PHILOSOPHOBIA The lack of agreement among philosophers as to the meaning of this discipline, points to the fact that Philosophy is an attempt to comprehend reality in its totality in variety of viewpoints. Philosophy deals with the pulsating problems of life. For Udigwomen, the issues it raises and the questions it asks are closely connected with the warm actualities of life. If agreed then that Philosophy deals with the problems of life, a phobia in this field would, in a sense mean the fear of this discipline, and in another, mean the fear of indulging in raising life questions and finding answers. This kind of phobia would then be said to be the act of being afraid not just of studying Philosophy in class, but mainly fear of being logical, critical, and solving life’s problem in the light of rational principles. This is what we mean when we talk of Philosophobia – a word that in my own definition is the fear of solving all life’s problems; a phobia hinging the progress of many.

PHILOSOPHY AND FEAR We live in an age of fear. We are confronted with headlines proclaiming the dangers of modern life, ranging from natural disaster, terrorism to disease. Philosophy has always responded to the continuous increased hype of the fearful, positively and negatively; sometimes against it and other times in support of fear as a tool. It could be said that the society was founded on fear. That’s at any rate what the philosopher Thomas Hobbes – one of the founding fathers of the social contract tradition seems to think. He claims that in the state of nature, life is ‘solitary, nasty, brutish and short’ because everyone is at war with everyone else. And he argues that to end this war, we enter into civil society and surrender all power to the state Now, Hobbes thinks all power should be concentrated into the hands of the state so that we longer have to fear. In other words, give power to an external body that you can see as greater than your fears. One could reasonably wonder about the external factor itself. Shouldn’t we fear it? Hobbes answer is that, of course we should. That’s the point in a way. Instead of thousand little cockroaches constantly nipping at each other, we give the concept of power to the big Kahuna of the state. Soren Kierkegaard sees this external influence, which we are supposed to hand over our power and expect to be protected by him and even work it out with, in fear, as God. He made references to Biblical Abraham, who left everything, even his own will power, to answer, respect and fear God to an extent of giving his only son as an offering. Whereas Hobbes sees these actions as being prompted by a necessity to overcome fear, Kierkegaard views it as action one takes when he becomes conscious of the eternal and external validity which is done by arriving at the door of faith and becoming a knight of faith. Thus, for him, depression and fear comes when we halt the movement to the infinite resignation. To contemporary ears, the Hobbesian state is bound to sound too tyrannical despite the facts that its legitimacy rests on voluntary submission to the will of the Sovereign. But then, we come to a realization that Hobbes sees fear as a social motivator. In his book, The Philosophy of fear, Lars Svendsen analyzes the nature of fear and how it has saturated every layer of our life – world. In this seven chaptered book, Svendsen relates how fear has become a culturally magnifying glass through which we consider the world. E.g. Security precautions in airports. For him, the problem is that we see everything from a perspective of fear. For example; fear is undoubtedly an important sales tool for the mass media. In support of Hobbes, chapter four of the book Philosophy of Fear presents the positive roles of fear as motivator, since fear holds a degree of fascination on us all. Fear has helped human beings survive and procreate. It is also a tool of control. But then, not every philosopher agrees with the positivity of fear. Frank Herbert sees it as a mind killer. Truly, a mind seized with fear makes us to do crazy things.it robs us of our freedom. Fear is a misery which keeps on giving. However, I agree with Lars Svenden that ‘fear comes when our risk culture is not in place’ – when we cannot take risks. Risk assails us with every choice. Fear truly does not just rob us of our freedom; its enculturation affects an erosion of basic trust in others. It presents a habitual background of fear. We shall not continue merely indulging in a scholarly rant. We shall offer compelling tour of philosophical treatment of fear harnessed to an emphasis on the social consequences of living against a background state of fear.

EXPERIENCES 1. “It happened one day while I was swimming in a bank of a river when suddenly I noticed that my legs were unable to move again. I was drowning gradually. I started screaming until my friends helped me out. After that very incident, I developed that feeling of fear about life and water” [John Narrates] 2. “From childhood, I have been living in fear, I cannot move out in the dark except in the company of my brothers. I cannot sleep alone on a bed” [Ijeoma,Owerri] 3. “My father loved me a lot. I was always in his company. When he wasn’t around, I became afraid. When he died, fear entered my life” [Walter Booke, USA] 4. “I have always had a phobia for motorcycles. This was as a result of the five accidents that I experienced with motorcycles.so truly, I became afraid of either riding or being carried in any. But then, after the last accident which took place few weeks before our departure, I had to re-think. How do I get rid of this fear? Whenever I am being carried in a motorcycle, I feel danger at the sight of another passing motorcycle, as if there would be another accident. This went on for a while”. [Personal Experience] CAN WE MOVE BEYOND FEAR Yes! Says the Marxist philosopher Ernst Bloch, who argues that the crucial thing is to teach Hope .but then, hope without action is useless against fear. The answer he should have given is that of Humanistic Optimism. Back to my personal experience, I had to think of a way to eliminate my fear of riding or being carried in a motorcycle. I reasoned I had to begin with a humanistic optimism. I had to, not just hope in a human way to get rid of this phobia but also to maintain a certain authority over it. And so I did learn how to ride a motorcycle and gradually, I learnt it. My optimism applied humanly and not just hope became my solution. Nevertheless, here are some treatments recommended by philosophers and neuroscientists ◈ HYPO ANALYSIS Known as Hypo-therapy in which a person opens his subconscious mind to suggestion for the purpose of changing one or more behavior pattern. This includes the use of positive suggestions and teaching the mind to attach different feelings to the feared item. ◈ NEURO-LINGUISTIC PROGRAMMING We practice here, how we create our reality. We make use of words to reflect an inner subconscious perception of our problems. Our words and attitude are in a sense, self-fulfilling prophecies. It is important to analyze our description of symptoms or concerns about our problems and health. Don’t make a big case out of nothing.it destroys you.

◈ ENERGY PSYCHOLOGY Technique such as Acupressure, Yoga, Tai chi etc. stimulates energy points on the surface of the skin which shifts the brain’s electrochemistry. A LEADER’S PHILOSOPHY OF FEAR I by no means, mean to suggest that all fear are illegitimate. Some things are worth fearing and sometimes lead us to do the right thing. For example; when we fear the consequences of global warming and try as a consequence, to prevent it from happening, our fear has motivated us to do something good. When we as philosophers allow fear to creep into our search for knowledge and wisdom in understanding the nature of the universe, ethics, art, love, purpose etc., we suffer from PHILOSOPHOBIA, which limits the process of building king models and leaders. • BUT THEN, WHAT HAPPENS WITHOUT FEAR? • CAN THERE BE A MOMENT WITHOUT IT? • WOULD THE WORLD BE THE SAME TODAY IF THERE WAS NO FEAR? • WHAT IF I NEVER HAD ACCIDENTS BEFORE? • WHAT IF OUR COMFORT ZONES ARE ALWAYS THERE FOR US? • IS FEAR OUR ONLY MOTIVATOR? • DOES IT MOTIVATE WITHOUT LEAVING A SCAR?

We would love to know your thoughts. But before then, this is my stand – My Philosophy of Fear. I must not fear. I believe fear is really the mind killer. I won’t state that it doesn’t exist. It has always been there. I will allow it pass through me and when it does, I will still be standing. I MUST NOT FEAR.

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