Philosophy of Fear
A Move to Overcoming Negative Fear
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Philosophy of fear as an emerging paradigm
Philosophy’s unique interest lies in its love for wisdom and its constant quest for absolute truth. This means that there is no limits to what philosophy can study. Thus, every discipline of study has an undertone of philosophy. In fact, anything whatsoever that is worth knowing, no matter how trifle the thing might appear to be is already a field in philosophy. This makes everyone a philosopher of some sort on the premise that, everyone in one time or the other has engaged in truth findings. Philosophy of fear therefore, is a philosophical approach into the study of fear: Its scope, nature, types and its effects on all beings and how the problems associated with it can be addressed. Since the core function of philosophy is to discover truth, it can also be said that the core function of philosophy of fear is to discover the truth about the whole body of fear and how we can use it to overcome our fears and become fearless even in the very territory of fear. The essence of this discovery is not just to know the truth value of fear; but that, this discovered truth ought to help us develop a workable methodology on how best we can manage all forms of problem associated with fear for the well being of human persons. Thus, the question: Why is the study of fear important should not be a celebrated question in this 21st century? Fear studies should be taken more seriously than ever as fearful occurrences continue to strike in all fabric of our societies. Today, the way people are living in fear of war, terrorism, earthquake, epidemic, bomb explosion, kidnapping, assassination, incessant killing of innocent and law abiding citizens in different parts of the world and many other fearing activities all over, have left the world in a perpetual traumatized state.
Again, an in-depth study of the concept of fear, will make us appreciate the fact that fear has both beautiful and ugly sides, and that it is left for us to adopt means on how to avoid the ugly and then embrace the beautiful. It is therefore the primary function of the fearists to carry out; analytical, epistemological, existentialist, and any useful methods of studies to work out a methodological template on how fear can be best used for development and how the ugly side of fear can be managed, overcome or eliminated if possible.
Philosophy of Fear as a school of thought is addressed by different names by the members. Such names like: Fearism, Philosophy of Fearism, Fearlessness Movement/Philosophy of Fearlessness. Hence, Philosophy of Fear which can also be used as a replacement of the above names, is an emerging paradigm on how to study and manage human emotional, psychological, physical, mental and all forms of tensions of human persons in relation to his society. Many branches of fear keep coming as scholars from different fields and works make scholarly research to unravel the influence of fear in the making of a society as well as individuals. Such branches like: Fearcrimianalysis, Fear Management, Fearology, Fearanalysis, and Feariatry (names majorly traced to Fisher) are amongst the branches under the Philosophy of Fear. Other branches such as: Antecedent Fear, Present Fear, Future Fear, faculty of fear and fear territory, are part of the branches which this book envisioned.
The Antecedent Fear as a branch of Fearism deals with the study of the history of the past incidents of fear with the aim to making efforts to avoid the reoccurrence of all the identified aspects of negative fearing events, and at the same time ensuring that the identified incidents of positive fearful actions are built upon. Present Fear is concerned with the contemporary inventions, technological and scientific revolutions and other fearing events that have generated so much fearing conditions in the contemporary society in both positive and negative dimensions and how to manage them. Future fear is the branch of Philosophy of Fear that deals with the evaluation of the antecedent and the present fearful and fearless events; their causes and impact on the society with the aim of using them in projecting a better future for all existing beings. It is also a collaborating study of antecedent and present incidents of fear in predicting future societies. Fear territory shall be discussed in our next chapter.
As a Philosophical School of thought with a strong seal to utilize fear to human advantage, Philosophy of Fearism has become an international movement called Fearism Movement/Fearlessness Movement (FM) which is co-founded by Subba and Fisher and other fearologists. The movement has attracted so many disciples and fearlogists from different fields of studies across the globe. Owing to the fact of differences in some of the fearism doctrines, some members of school still hold their different opinions in a way that doesn’t contradict the overall tenet of Fearism doctrines.
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About the Book
The book Philosophy of Fear is a philosophical manual developed to aid human person overcome the limitations imposed on him by fear. The author recognizes two categories of fear (positive and negative) and blamed all forms of negative activities of human persons to negative category of fear, while he attributes all aspects of positive development to positive fear. The author further argues that since fear is fundamental to all beings, it ought to be given its philosophical brand name, and that is, philosophy of fear or fearism. He believes that fearism as a school of thought, will offer an expanding opportunities into the study of fear and it related challenges.
In suggesting a workable methodology to the solution to fear problems, the author adopted unification- complementary approach, where fear and fearless (the opposites) are investigated in a unified and complementary manner in order to have a complete knowledge about fear. He uses love -courage as the method for decision making within the framework of fearism.
This interpretative and explanative guide into the study of fear, if followed, will help human persons overcome all forms of negative fear, which this book has identified as an impediment to human development. The book is a must read for all those who want to use fear positively to confront their existential challenges.
About the Author
Michael Bassey Eneyo was born in Ekpri Ikot Eyo Edem in Akpabuyo L.G.A. of Cross River State, Nigeria. He is a Theologian and a Philosopher who is determined to translate deep and critical philosophical thoughts into practical and problems solving mechanisms. He holds a Diploma in Religious Studies, B. A. (Hon.) and M. A. Philosophy from the prestigious University of Calabar, Calabar-Nigeria. He is of the opinion that unless opposites are taken into consideration, enquiry is incomplete. Thus, unification and complementarity are his philosophical paradigms.
He has written on: Ethics, Duty and Responsiveness: A Hint for the new Officers of the Nigeria Customs Service, and many other books yet to be published to his credit. He is currently working with the Nigeria Customs Service.