Philosophy of Fear: A Move to Overcoming Negative Fear

By Michael Bassey Eneyo

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.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris AU
• Release date: Oct 1, 2018
• ISBN: 9781543409697

Michael Bassey Eneyo

Michael Bassey Eneyo is a seasoned scholar and a philosopher from Nigeria who has written many philosophical books and articles on different challenging existential issues. His major books include Philosophy of Fear: A Move to Overcoming Negative Fear (2018), Philosophy of Unity: Love as an Ultimate Unifier (2019) and Ethics: Judging Morality Beyond the Limits of Man (2020). Eneyo has published many academic articles in both National and International Journals. His ultimate goal is to contribute ideas that can help in making the world a better place for all beings, and not just for human beings. At present, Eneyo is a staff of the Nigeria Customs Service.

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Copyright © 2018 by Michael Bassey Eneyo.

ISBN:              Softcover             978-1-5434-0970-3

                         eBook                 978-1-5434-0969-7

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Rev. date: 04/03/2019

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Contents

Dedication

Foreword

Review

Acknowledgements

Introduction

Glossary

Chapter 1   Philosophy of Fear: The dialogue

Philosophy of fear as an emerging paradigm

Subba’s Philosophy of Fearism

Fisher’s Fearlessness Movement

General opinions

Chapter 2   Fear and its territory

What is fear?

Subba’s notion of Fear

Kalu’s Critique of Desh Subba’s Treatment of Fear

Fisher on Love-Fear

Fisher and his Concept of ‘Fear’

Comparing Subba’s Fearism with Fisher’s Concept of Fearlessness

Kumar and Sushmita on The Youth & Fear

Fear territory

Chapter 3   Categories of fear

Positive fear

Negative fear

Abstract nature of fear

Object nature of fear

Kinds of fear

Mental fear

Physical fear

Antecedent fear

Present fear

Future fear

Eschatological fear

The Roles of Fear in the Making of Informed Decisions

Fear is a moderator

Fear is a controller

Fear is a motivator

Fear is productive

Fear is underdevelopment

Chapter 4   The process of fear

Every being is fearful (existent)

Thought

Idea

Reason as facilitator of fear process

Knowledge

Action

Consequence

Chapter 5   The impacts of fear in the building and the destruction of man and his society

Fear as contrary

Fear as a builder

Fear as Guarantor for success

Fear as a destroyer

Fear as the Cause of Underdevelopment

Fear as the reason for failure

Chapter 6   How can we control fear?

Love

How Positive Love does Control Positive Fear

Negative Love as the Controller of Negative Fear

Locating the Place of Love in Fear Conflict

The notion of Courage

Moral courage

Physical courage

Mental courage

Chapter 7   How to overcome Negative Fear

Obedience to the constituted authority

A Good Knowledge of Our Environment

Moral law

Social law

Biological law

Environmental Law

Maintaining Positive Thoughts

Acting Positively

Not Being Over-dependent

Honesty in all Dealings

Love Everyone and Hate No One

Being Committed to What You Believe in

Courageous Decision is a Fearless Decision

Be Courageous to Defend the Truth

Value Integrity over Wealth

Chapter 8   The Negative Impacts of fear in Africa: The Nigeria Experience

Corruption

Material Corruption

Religious/ideological corruption

Mental corruption

Insecurity

Unemployment

Chapter 9   How Positive Fear has helped in the Drive of Nigeria Development

Fear as the Driving Force of Development in Nigeria: A Reflection on Some Efik Myths

The Myth of the Spittle

The Myth of Making a Good Wife and the Ideology of the Fattening Room

The Myth of the Clay Pot

The Myth of Clean Environment

Conclusion

Bibliography

Dedication

This book is dedicated to God; the giver of life, and to all those who have contributed, those still researching, as well as those who will in the future, investigate how fear can be used positively for the realization of human potentials.

Foreword

Philosophy of Fear is a welcome development in the fields of theology, philosophy and similar disciplines whose agenda involves serious reflections about the nature and the role of fear, love, courage and fearless action. Granted, most philosophers from antiquity have hitherto concerned with these concepts. It is however Eneyo’s relatively innovative perspective that makes it more interesting with practical application for guidance for very wide public readership, knowledge and praxis.

I am especially honoured to be asked to write a foreword, and this request comes from across the world in Nigeria, where Eneyo lives and writes. There is something happening in Nigeria around the topic of fear. Some months ago, I was invited to write a similar brief contribution for a new book by Osinakachi Akuma Kalu, a young and budding Nigerian fearology scholar.

Eneyo’s book is a gathering of a lot of years of experienced thinking and writing. His previous engagement with philosophy is replete on almost every page. Yet, he keeps the work readable and intellectually stimulating. Like Kalu’s work, I perceive a fundamental shift in consciousness and perspective regarding the philosophy of fear in Eneyo’s too. Both authors utilize Desh Subba’s discovery of a philosophy of fearism.

Subba is a poet, writer, and public intellectual born and raised in Nepal, now living in Hong Kong. There’s a curious close interconnection I have witnessed in Subba’s fearism conception that is appealing to the Nigerian thinkers on fear today, especially with Kalu and Eneyo. Both are Christian thinkers, taking the lead toward developing their distinctive understanding of fearism, yet relying on one of the cardinal claims in fearism that fear is fundamental to all human behaviours. Owing to this, fearology offers that the discourse on fear ought to be given its own philosophical label–that is, fearism. If there is existentialism, rationalism, why not fearism? That’s the itinerary Subba blazes and several other thinkers are following.

For my part, as a seasoned scholar on the nature and the role of fear, employing a transdisciplinary and internationalist perspective for three decades, I have a very different perspective on fear and its management. I have been exposed to diverse literatures on fear. I was born and raised in Canada. I have also lived in the USA for nine years.

Before I comment directly on some of the content of Eneyo’s first book on the topic of fear, I want to say that he is courageous to align his thinking with the boundless research scope of the philosophy of fear. I too have been interested in this topic and territory but it has not always been easy to tell who is researching and writing in this area of philosophy of fear. Some are doing so but have not named it as such. Some others like the Norwegian philosopher Lars Svendsen have used philosophy of fear in a recent book title. Yet, only a handful of philosophers have ever focused on engaging the notion of philosophy of fear in situ. This is where Eneyo has stepped over the boundaries of the traditional approach to fear studies. Thus, filling this research lacuna by incorporating the new fearism, thereby producing his own version and orientation on fear. Truly, it is remarkable to me to finally see more authors taking up this topic seriously. It is long overdue. It intrigues me how the various schools of philosophy of fear(ism) will evolve in the future. I hope to see what kinds of critical and creative dialogues will be established between the schools. I suggest this international movement could produce some good results to help humanity and continue to drive the forces of what I have labelled the global historical Fearlessness Movement.

Now to Eneyo’s book specifically. Although I have different view from some of his perspectives on the topic of fear(ism), he has a sincere voice in this book which deserves attention from all walks of life. I see that broad scope to reach many readers. He is out to teach two major things: (1) Fear should be perceived as equally positive and negative. Similarly, love may be seen from these outlooks as well. (I appreciate his articulation of how even love can be negative sometimes); and (2) Courage and love in the positive sense are greatest weapons to engage any aspect of fear (management) to our advantage…(in order) to make a fearful or fearless decision.

Ultimately, like other authors from Western world of North America, Eneyo repeats the imperative that we ought to be more fear-positive (that’s my own term), which is traceable to at least Aristotle’s philosophy as well and that the real moral issue for Aristotle, is that we ought not try to avoid being afraid but rather to be wise and courageous (if not loving, in the Christian humanist sense) so that we don’t end up fearing that which we ought not to fear: What that "does not actually deserves our (as Eneyo suggests, p.161).

I encourage Eneyo and others to examine my own critique as well of fear-positivists and their discourse which I believe has a down-side as well as an up-side. Anyways, the thrust of Eneyo’s or Aristotle’s teaching is that fear be treated as more complex and dynamic, especially as it interrelates with courage and love. I am all for that complexification of our knowledge systems regarding these topics.

In closing, an intriguing concept Eneyo adds to the subfields of fearism and fearology is his concept of ‘fear territory’ which it seems he must be original in coining the term. He defines this in the book, and it will be worthwhile to reflect on this as a very pertinent concept. This notion of ‘fear territory’ is analogous yet slightly different from my expansive notion of ‘fearuality.’ It may even be contrasted against those used ‘ecology of fear’ and ‘geography of fear,’ in the social and biological sciences literatures. Eneyo’s ‘fear territory’ offers a geographical and philosophical metaphor to fear study as it identifies a domain of human experiencing where our decision (our relationship with fear) during this period (and location) can be either negative or positive (pp. 20).

The above-mentioned is consistent with the Subbaian philosophy of fearism in general. This persists because Eneyo posits that fear is important to all human behaviours and decisions behind their meaning. Fear is itself the ground/territory upon which humans think and act. In this expansive view, fear is a grand relational and rational territory. Such a notion ought to prevent us from forms of reductionism when thinking about fear as a reductionism common in contemporary psychology. In this parlance, fear is reduced to only neurobiological and chemical sources and dynamics. In my own work, I have introduced the necessity of ‘fear’ (with ‘marks) to show the term is under deconstruction and reconstruction. The trained theological and philosophical perspective of Eneyo is, like Aristotle’s as it is sharp enough to avoid that reductionism.

However, neither Aristotle nor Eneyo has taken on the postmodern mantle and created a ‘fear’ studies project for analysis paralleling the study of a philosophy of fear(ism). Future reflections and discourses on philosophy of fear, I am sure will eventually lay the ground for dialogues of premodernists, modernists, postmodernists and beyond. These rich holistic-integral discourses, I believe will hasten an improved understanding of the phenomena under investigation. I am pleased that Eneyo has engaged in his book some of my submissions on ‘philosophy of fearlessness’ as part of articulating his own approach.

So, I wish this new book by Eneyo to have its success, both in Africa and beyond. I think that we will learn more about fear management based on the kinds of responses to his work over the years.

R. Michael Fisher, Ph.D.

Founder World Fearlessness Movement,

USA.

Review

This cerebral work stands out as a consequence of the intellectual ruminations and churning of the mind of the author, Michael Eneyo. Herein, he presents complicated ideas on fear in a much simpler, tastier and easily comprehensible form. Like Amrit, the divine nectar ready to be drunk for attaining eternity, so has Eneyo made this work.

Albeit an arduous task, the author makes the concepts and observations surrounding fear and their analysis interesting as well as captivating. In one of his positive interpretations of biblical verses, he says, …the coming of Christ was to enthrone love and to encourage his followers not to be afraid (Matthew 1: 20). Such is the optimism that reflects his ideation so as to brighten the otherwise dimly lit path of human life.

The best part, explicitly visible in his style of approach, is that he resorted to antithetical treatment of various fear constructs to aver that opposites unless taken into consideration, enquiry is incomplete and that nothing tangible will ensue.

The author views Subba as fear positivist in the sense that the positive side of fear outweighs and Kalu as fear negativist for the contrary thereto. The author also interprets the stratagem of Kumar and Sushmita as fear negativistic. These three perspectives, according to him, are tinged with opposite orientations, rather in subtle manner. Then he fuses the whole gamut of different viewpoints in the Fisherian crucible of fearlessness, thereby reaching a beautiful and a comprehensive philosophical synergy. At this point, Eneyo proposes: …opposite is a natural characteristic of every being and none can be eliminated…they necessitate each opposite’s existence…positive fear must continue to struggle with the negative fear using fearlessness approach….

While journeying by the train of his thoughts, the author finds himself in a never ending ‘fear territory’ where he exhibits his unique knack of rhetoric with scintillating coinage like ‘fear conflict’, ‘fear territory’, ‘fear dilemma’, ‘fear climax’, etc. These new vocabularies expand the human mind to understand fear more insightfully as Lera Boroditsky, a cognitive scientist infers in her research that the new words and new dialects do shape the way we think..

In order to elucidate the multifaceted nature of fear more succinctly, the author has intelligently developed a typology of fear, making each segment of category not only unambiguous but also easily comprehensible. The fear that poses as challenge turns creative and proactive and results in productivity whereas that fear which confronts as procrastination gets translated into underdevelopment, he reasons.

How fear is generated, has been systematically discussed in the chapter on ‘the process of fear’. Like a manufacturing procedure, where one component gets converted into the other by a step-by-step method, fear process also takes its route through six phases, culminating into consequences or effects. Kudos to the author for bringing the entire fear genesis to a logically plausible end with ‘reason’ as ‘catalyst’!

Congruent to dual nature of fear as to its positive and negative results, its impact on humans and society has also been examined in both constructive real life examples. The author has undoubtedly succeeded to prove his point that the fear which acts sometimes as a builder of society has also the potency of becoming a destroyer. At some other times, it stands as a guarantor for success yet at some other instances, a becoming that is responsible for failure.

For managing fear, the author takes recourse to love and courage. Positive love controls positive fear, negative love controls negative fear. He deduces by narrating ordinary daily experiences from his home land. He also explains how ‘courage’ suppresses the tensions unleashed by negative fear. He intends to surmise that ethically and morally driven decisions can control negative fear. Furthermore, righteous socioeconomic-psychological environment backed by value based educational and legal systems help overcome negative fear, the author contends.

The last parts of the book enthuses the readers to empathize with Nigerians. It ponders over the role negative fear has played in the country’s backwardness. The author is nevertheless optimistic that this can be rectified via dedicated adherence to and spirited application of positive fear.

In essence, I would like to conclude my review by affirming that this wonderful philosophical treatise on fear has been thoughtfully conceived, logically sequenced, intelligently chaptered, analytically explained and convincingly presented. I admire the cognitive toiling and intellectual labour that the author, Michael Eneyo has put in while crafting this masterpiece.

B. Maria Kumar,

Author: The Youth Don’t Cry

India

Review

This book contains interesting guides to all those who want to overcome negative fear. Negative fear comprises of sadness, sorrow, tragedy, depression, hopelessness, anxiety, stress, etc. While its opposite are: Happiness, peace, pleasure, bliss, (positive fear) etc. In philosophy, a single word is enough to be a philosophy. A country, state, king, religion, ethics, etc, are all single words, yet we study and write much about them and bring out many philosophies from them. Just as Aristotle who considered happiness, almost all philosophies, started with a single human emotion, temperament and feeling which is then developed into universal principle of life. Fear is one of such words that have become philosophy to be studied by all and sundry.

In this context therefore, this book can be said to be a compendium of prophetic messages that comes with revealed knowledge on how positive fear can be used to foster growth in the society. Indeed, the book is a blessing to those that are willing to overcome negative fear.

The major beauty of the book is that of the Nigerian myths. Efik people’s myths are paradigm for philosophy of positive fear. I recommend that other myths of the world, just like the Efik myths discussed in this book; should be built on the assumption that myths ought to be channelled toward human development. I found many beautiful words introduced by Eneyo which I think should be included in fearism dictionary. I also suggest that the words be inserted in the glossary of this book. Such words like: Horror of fear, Antecedent fear, Fear Territory, Fear memory, Fear conflict, Eschatological fear, Fear studies, History of fear, Faculties of fear, Fear climax, Fear coalition, Fearful mythology, Negative fear expeller, potentiality of fear and many other new concepts and meanings. The credit of these new words belongs to you. Your logic, presentation, example and myths are well articulated. I congratulate you on your success.

Desh Subba,

Author: Philosophy of Fearism

and founder of Fearism Movement

Hong Kong

Review

Philosophy of Fear is indeed an emerging paradigm that is primarily concern with the holistic study of fear: Its positive and its negative natures. However, Michael Eneyo in this book has nearly satisfactorily turned his birthed book on fear into a compendium of facts about the real nature of fear – Its meaning, scope, and how