Philosophical Question #16 – Fear

Fear is a natural instinct.  Further, it’s a self-preservation mechanism. 

As soon as an organism reaches the “sentience threshold,” it will have an understanding of and is capable of experiencing the concept of fear, with all the usual physical and psychologically associated aspects.  There is not a person here who has not experienced some kind of fear sometime in their life. 

So…

  • What do you fear most?  Do you know why? 
  • There may be/are different categories and levels of fear (phobias, anticipations of potential danger, apprehension of something fearful previously experienced, believed repercussions from dire mistakes you’ve made, etc.). But, fundamentally, is all fear the same, a one-size-fits-all kind of thing?  I.e., it’s like a switch; it’s either flipped or it isn’t, on or off?  Explain/make your argument(s).

(by PrimalSoup)



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