Today in class we talked about fear and the differences between the philosophy of Hume and Descartes. Descartes is a rationalist and Hume is an empiricist. We discussed the power of fear. Is it the strongest emotion? I don't think it is, but I think it is the second strongest.
As I said in class, I was always an anxious child, scared of fire, accidents, thunderstorms, and dying. And today those anxieties have declined a bit, but I still feel their presence. Today I am still afraid of dying, but not because I am scared of the unknown. I fear dying early before I can experience the entirety of the world and its people. Perhaps in this way I relate to Hume. I fear the loss of experience. Fear itself is an experience, a choking and icy permeating dread that fills you up until your limbs are heavy and restless. But fear is important. It drives us forward, protects us in many cases, and allows us to contextualize our lives. Fear, however, can be destructive if we cannot find a rationalizing line to draw. It can hurt us, drive us mad with irrational thoughts and catastrophic, unreasonable thinking.
Fear is powerful, but it is manageable. There must be a perfect balance between feeling and reason, a marriage of sensation and rationalism.
Emma- I wholeheartedly agree with what you have to say in this post. Like many of us high school students, "fear" for me is replaceable with another F word, "failure". Personally, my fears are more centered on failing to get accepted into college, failing to have a successul career, failing the expectations of my family, etc. And in some twisted way, I do feel that controlling this fear is almost beneficial, possibly even good for my life, because it is the motivating force behind what I do. But at the same, worrying too much about the future can be even more distressing, and if I you always put pressure on yourself to succeed, then when will you ever be able to enjoy your achievements? I think it's important to do this, especially since you have soo many!
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