Talk:Fear
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[edit] Quoting Yoda
Should we really be quoting yoda?
What do you have against Yoda? -Whats a question?
[edit] ==
This is a dictionary entry. Wikipedia is not a dictionary. If you're going to turn a word like this into an article, or some semblance of an article, please make sure you have something more constructive to say than a simple definition.
Removed:SV(talk) 01:23, 21 Mar 2004 (UTC) "The opposite is confidence. Self-confidence is confidence in oneself, i.e. in one's abilities and worth, including the abilitiy to cope with one's limitations and problems. Unjustified confidence can cause problems."
Why does self confidence redirect here? --Tubby 19:16, 27 May 2005 (UTC)
it would be great if there was a paragraph about how fear can be used to manipulate someone or a group (or an entire population(using say, terrorism by both the terrorist and the governement))
The first paragraph is over-simplified, while the very next paragraph is OVER-complex. Poor flow, says I. Further, does the height of the bridge in the first example have to be so extreme?
[edit] Hebrew Definition of Fear
<Commenting on the phrase in Fear—Fear is an unpleasant feeling of perceived risk or danger, whether it be real or imagined. Fear also can be described as a feeling of extreme dislike to some conditions/objects, such as: fear of darkness, fear of ghosts, etc. It is one of the basic emotions.>
- The Hebrew word translated as fear is yir-aw', Gesenius's Strong's Concordance:3374— fear, reverence, holy, dreadful. The root is yaw-ray', Gesenius's Strong:3372—to fear, to revere, to frighten. Based on this etymology, the fear is like that of, say, touching an active electrical wire, fearing an undertow at the beach, or passing a red light.
- The fear, or awe, stems from knowing the consequences of an act. The translation "to fear the Lord" is unfortunate; better would be "awe of the Lord". Yesselman 21:15, 25 December 2005 (UTC)
[edit] A Basic Explanation of How Fear Intensifies
I'm not sure if this really belongs here, but I was just thinking about fear and I hadn't really seen this posted anywhere, so I figured I would add my two cents. Just a few notes about fear:
Fear, as a reaction, is brought about by a plethora of stimuli. Namely, anything that would cause the brain to perceive risk or danger. This is a natural evolutionary reaction in place for the sole reason of keeping the body alive.
The other part of fear relates to intensification which leads to greater fear. This natural stimulus is helpful in avoidance of damage; therefore, if perception is limited, fear will intensify and the mind will create certain possible courses of action that are designed to remove the body from a harmful situation and return them to a safe situation.
The point could be explained by an experiment as follows- tell somebody that a killer is in the neighborhood, and they'll probably get scared to a degree. After telling the subject this, tell them to cover their ears. After that, touch them and tell them to cover their ears or eyes. If they comply, tell them you're going to leave and do so. This experiment works best if the subject is not in a group of numbers, because numbers not only reduce the possiblity of damage do to overpowering, but also reduce the percentage of damage for the subject. For example, if you have 10 people together, along with a maniac who has a gun, and wants to kill one of them, the subject will have a better chance of survival than if he were the only target. Therefore, numbers reduce fear.
After the investigator leaves, they should stage a simple sound or clatter loud enough to be perceived by the subject. The subject will almost definately open their eyes, uncover their ears and look around warily, since this is an obvious danger. But WHY is it an obvious danger? Because of the association with memory. The investigator told them that a killer was supposedly nearby. The subject had most likely heard about murders before, and may have watched horror movies. Due to this, their mind probably depicted or reminded the person in question about certain events which could occur, and, as a reaction, the person became uncomfortable and probably wanted to escape to a safer situation- most likely, leaving the room with the investigator. If the subject had any type of defensive apparatus that would lead to increased safety- such as a gun, security system, or guard dog, for instance- that subject may be somewhat afraid but not nearly as afraid as the subject without the defensive measure.
The point, which has taken a long while to articulate, is as follows: Deny a human any one sense and fear will intensify. The reason for this intensification is logical- perceived dangers can do more damage and have a greater probability of doing more damage if one cannot their senses fully.
This is a pretty obvious point, but I just wanted to post it so that somebody with better writing and a more scientific explanation could put the above thoughts into sequence. Hope I didn't post this erroneously or in a wrong spot... Robinson0120 23:47, 31 January 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Article structure
This article could use quite a bit of clean up.
I would suggest that the first thing that is listed should be the medical/physical description of fear, including a brief overview of the reactions that the various hormones (epinephrine, norepinephrine, the steroid cortisol etc.) each cause, the role of the amygdala etc.
[edit] A comment on fear
I was doing my daily philosophizing and a thought about fear occured to me. Fear can either stop us from doing something, or it makes us do something. For example, we would not go up to an 8 foot gorilla and punch it in the face because our fear prevents us from doing it. On the other hand most of us go to college because we want good jobs, we fear to be bums and starve. In the first instance fear stopped our action, and in the second it was the catalyst for action. It struck me then that this whole world is built on fear. Every advance we have made can be traced back to fear. I don't like fear and have spent many years trying to get it out of my system, but I guess I should be thankful because I can be on this computer because of fear. Can someone else post their thoughts on this.
After that there should be a section on the evolutionary theories behind why fear exists and how it developed. Next should be a few of the more prominant psychological and philosophical analyses regarding the emotion.
Finally it should be wrapped up with a list of the more well-known / prevelant fears that humans experience.
[edit] needless sentence
"In 2005, University of Toronto researchers traced the origin of memories to the prefrontal cortex of the brain"
What does that have to do with fear?
[edit] Biological reason for fear
Does anyone know where in the brain fear is said to originate ie, which part of the brain is the main area where the precursors for fear are created? I was told once it was the primitive portion of the brain but I don't know what it is called, I assume it is near the neo-cortex, but being the title of the neo-cortex is basically new cortex, I assume there is an old cortex?
I think the hippocampus is somehow involved in this...gotta look up me textbook, but god is it looooooooong.
Amygdala!
[edit] basis of all emotions
I agree with a previous comment on fear being the basis of all human emotion. Despite the numerous names given to the various emotions, each emotion can be placed on a continuum between fear and comfort, or complete lack of fear. This applies to any emotion, whether it is confidence (believing you will not experience fear), or frustration (being unable to remove fear and achieve comfort). I know this may sound peculiar, but this is not a new idea. Even the movie Donnie Darko has made reference to fear being the root of all emotion to some degree. Perhaps someone more knowledgable in human emotion could expand upon this idea in the future.
[edit] Weasel Words
There are some weasel words at the beginning of the article.
"Some philosophers... other thinkers... still others..."
Where are the specifics?
[edit] theory?
no discussion of theories about fear?
[edit] Degrees and Causes
Degrees of Fear
Perhaps the mildest form of fear is Care, in that we take care to avoid pain or suffering in ourselves or others, such as child care. If we should fail to take due care we may be guilty at law.
Causes of Fear The experience of pain is a classic cause of fear. Some of these fears are based on classical conditioning. This fear is adapting or phasic (operating similar to phasic receptor) and the example of bombing in World War II is an good example where the initial fear is extinguished because the stimulus, the bomb blast, was not matched with pain or suffering (at least by those gossipping on street corners).
But some primitive, and primary evolutionary fears requires no previous painful experience or conditioning; although, to develop into a phobia, they often involve un-associated pain even some hours from the exposure (that is, not contiguous as required in classical conditioning). These are often the source of clinical phobias. Examples evolutionary fears are fear of suffocation (claustrophobia), abandonment and agoraphobia, heights, deep water, animals and insects, and helplessness (Fear of flying in an aeroplane is thought to be a secondary manifestation of this. Pilots can have a fear of flying if they are not the pilot. Hostage and kidnapped victims suffer this fear.) (See Martin Seligman, What You Can Change and What You Can't)
This bit in the article is pop-psych/philosophy and should be removed: Fear is the lack of love. Love of oneself and others. The root of this lack of love for self and others brings with it all the underpinnings of evil that we humans experience in our relationships (personal and groups). If you trace the root cause of all things evil you will find a deep fear of loss, loss of love in ones being which goes unsatisfied and always seeking to fill this void. But the opposite of fear is love which gives us fullfillment and peace. Letting go of fear can only be truly done by filling the void with love. Science has shown fear to be more intimately linked with survival. Love has been linked to the benefits of social groups for survival. The theory above is metaphysical and epistemically unsound:
Social inhibition also is a fear, but is probably just another manifestation fear of abandonment.
[edit] Moral and Legal sections unoriginal
I was mystified by the abrupt shift in usage in the "Moral" and "Legal" considerations sections; in fact I don't believe that the average Wiki user would be interested in these sections at all outside of the context in which the text was almost directly lifted: from the Catholic Encyclopedia.
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/06021a.htm
Words were omitted in the wiki entry but the bulk of the text is just copied. I suggest they be rewritten or simply removed.
john@camokub.net
24.148.34.16 22:36, 8 October 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Removed quotes
Quotes belong to wikiquote. I removed the section from the article. `'mikka 23:26, 27 December 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Quotes
- "Perfect love casts out fear." - The Bible - 1 John, chapter 4, verse 18
- "From this arises the question whether it is better to be loved rather than feared, or feared rather than loved. It might perhaps be answered that we should wish to be both: but since love and fear can hardly exist together, if we must choose between them, it is far safer to be feared than loved." - Machiavelli
- "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself." - Franklin Roosevelt
- "Only when we are no longer afraid do we begin to live." - Dorothy Thompson
- "Fear has been the original parent of superstition, and every new calamity urges trembling mortals to deprecate the wrath of their invisible enemies." - Edward Gibbon.[1]
- "Jonathan Livingston Seagull discovered that boredom and fear and anger are the reasons that a gull's life is so short, and with these gone from his thought, he lived a long fine life indeed." - Richard Bach [2]
- "The only real prison is fear, and the only real freedom is freedom from fear" - Aung San Suu Kyi
- "The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown"-H.P. Lovecraft
- "I don't know about angels, but it's fear that gives men wings."-Max Payne
In relation to courage:
- "Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more important than fear."-Ambrose Redmoon
- "Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear - not absence of fear. Except a creature be part coward it is not a compliment to say it is brave."-Mark Twain, Pudd'nhead Wilson's Calendar, 1894
[edit] Stopping fear?
Can you stop or reduce fear by consciously stopping the effects of the behavior of fear? Whats a question? 04:01, 22 March 2007 (UTC)
Fine dont answer my question! Jeeze! Do you people take pleasure in ignoring me? Whats a question? 02:11, 29 March 2007 (UTC)
