A Philosophy of Fear

More surveillance cameras, new airport security strategies, increased police powers ... we see manifestations of society's fears every day, and daily news reports on the latest household danger or the raised level in terror threats continually stoke our sense of impending doom. In A Philosophy of Fear Lars Svendsen explores the underlying ideas and issues behind this powerful emotion as he investigates how and why fear has insinuated itself into every corner of modern life.
Svendsen delves into science, politics, sociology and literature to explore the nature of fear. He examines the biology behind the emotion, from the neuroscience underlying our 'fight or flight' instinct to how fear induces us to take irrational actions in our efforts to minimize risk. And he probes the political and social realms, investigating the role of fear in the philosophies of Machiavelli and Hobbes, the rise of the modern 'risk society', and how fear has eroded social trust. The political use of fear in the ongoing war on terror also comes under the author's unflinching gaze, as he investigates whether we can ever disentangle ourselves from the continual state of alarm that defines our age.
Svendsen ultimately argues for the possibility of a brighter, less fearful future that is marked by a triumph of humanist optimism. An incisive and thought-provoking meditation, A Philosophy of Fear drags open the curtain that disguises the truths regarding dangers both imagined and real, forcing us to confront our fears and the reasons why we hold onto them.

Lars Svendsen is Associate Professor in the Department of Philosophy, University of Bergen, Norway.