Fear is Social
Date
2021-02-12
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
The author believes that one of the greatest resistances to the advancement of his conception of a new branch called ‘Fear’ Studies (Fisher, 2006) is the problem of reductionism in people’s imaginary and thinking. It is not just a resistance they have to seeing fear is social, but that they seem to fear that it is the case. In this paper the author summarizes a brief history of his work in moving fear from the reductionistic, positivistic, individualistic, materialistic philosophies and paradigms that have largely prevented a qualitative shift in how we see what Fear is about—that is, that Fear is Social. He discusses some of the social implications of this needed shift and the resistances to it that keep feeding the global Fear Problem. He links the issue of “social pathologies” with fear.
Description
Keywords
sociology, social theory, emotions, fear, fearlessness, social pathologies, social philosophy, socialization
Citation
Fisher, R.M. (2021). Fear is Social (Technical Paper N. 122). In Search of Fearlessness Research Institute.