The Courage To Be Anxious. Paul Tillich’s Existential Interpretation of Anxiety
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.15503/jecs20151.20.25Keywords:
anxiety, fear, courage, death, existentialism, phenomenology, existentialism, nihilism, meontology, meaninglessness, authenticityAbstract
The similitude between anxiety and death is the starting point of Paul Tillich's analysis from The Courage To Be, his famous theological and philosophical reply to Martin Heidegger's Being And Time. Not only Tillich and Heidegger are concerned with the connection between anxiety and death but also other proponents of both existentialism and nihilism like Friedrich Nietzsche, Emil Cioran and Lev Shestov. Tillich observes that "anxiety puts frightening masks" over things and perhaps this definition is its finest contribution to the spectacular phenomenology of anxiety. Moreover, Tillich has some illuminating insights about the anxiety of emptiness and meaninglessness, which are important for the history of the existential philosophy. It is interesting how the protestant theologian tries to answer to Heidegger: while the German philosopher asserted that we must avoid fear and we have to embrace anxiety as a route to personal authenticity, Tillich notes that we should transform anxiety into fear, because courage is more likely to "abolish" fear.
Downloads
References
Benjamin, W. (2009). On Some Motifs in Baudelaire. In: M. Damon, & I. Livingstone (Eds.), Poetry And Cultural Studies. A Reader (pp. 37-55). Chicago: University of Illinois Press.
Bolea, Ş. (2008). Nihilism and the Problem of Being. Transdisciplinarity in Science and Religion, 3, 173-182.
Bolea, Ş. (2014). What is Existentialism? A Revision of Contemporary Definitions. Studia UBB. Philosophia, Vol. 59 No. 2, 63-72.
Camus, A. (1955). The Myth of Sysiphus and Other Essays. Translated by J. O'Brien. New York: Vintage Books.
Castaneda, C. (1972). The Teachings of Don Juan. A Yaqui Way of Knowledge. Berekeley: University of California Press.
Cioran, E. M. (1992). On the Heights of Despair. Translated by I. Zarifopol-Johnston. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
Hegel, G. W. F. (1975). Lectures on the Philosophy of World History. Translated by H. B. Nisbet. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Heidegger, M. (1978). Being And Time. Translated by J. Macquarrie, & E. Robinson. Oxford: Blackwell.
Kierkegaard, S. (1980). The Concept of Anxiety. Edited and translated by R. Thomte, & A. B. Anderson. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Marlowe, Ch. (2003). The Complete Plays. Edited by F. Romany, & R. Lindsey. London: Penguin Classics.
Nietzsche, F. (1969). The Will To Power. Translated by W. Kafmann, & R. J. Hollingdale. New York: Vintage Books.
Shestov, L. (1975). In Job's Balances. On the Sources of the Eternal Truths. Athens, OH: Ohio University Press.
Tillich, P. (1952). The Courage to Be. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
CC-BY
Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal. All authors agree for publishing their email adresses, affiliations and short bio statements with their articles during the submission process.
