Fear
To turn next to Fear, what follows will
show things and persons of which, and the states of mind in which, we feel
afraid. Fear may be defined as a pain or disturbance due to a mental picture of
some destructive or painful evil in the future. Of destructive or painful evils
only; for there are some evils, e.g. wickedness or stupidity, the prospect of
which does not frighten us: I mean only such as amount to great pains or
losses. And even these only if they appear not remote but so near as to be imminent:
we do not fear things that are a very long way off: for instance, we all know
we shall die, but we are not troubled thereby, because death is not close at
hand. From this definition it will follow that fear is caused by whatever we
feel has great power of destroying or of harming us in ways that tend to cause
us great pain. Hence the very indications of such things are terrible, making
us feel that the terrible thing itself is close at hand; the approach of what
is terrible is just what we mean by "danger." Such indications are
the enmity and anger of people who have power to do something to us; for it is
plain that they have the will to do it, and so they are on the point of doing
it. Also injustice in possession of power; for it is the unjust man's will to
do evil that makes him unjust. [1382b] Also
outraged virtue in possession of power; for it is plain that, when outraged, it
always has the will to retaliate, and now it has the power to do so. Also fear
felt by those who have the power to do something to us, since such persons are
sure to be ready to do it. And since most men tend to be bad -- slaves to
greed, and cowards in danger -- it is, as a rule, a terrible thing to be at
another man's mercy; and therefore, if we have done anything horrible, those in
the secret terrify us with the thought that they may betray or desert us. And
those who can do us wrong are terrible to us when we are liable to be wronged;
for as a rule men do wrong to others whenever they have the power to do it. And
those who have been wronged, or believe themselves to be wronged, are terrible;
for they are always looking out for their opportunity. Also those who have done
people wrong, if they possess power, since they stand in fear of retaliation:
we have already said that wickedness possessing power is terrible. Again, our
rivals for a thing cause us fear when we cannot both have it at once; for we
are always at war with such men. We also fear those who are to be feared by
stronger people than ourselves: if they can hurt those stronger people, still
more can they hurt us; and, for the same reason, we fear those whom those
stronger people are actually afraid of. Also those who have destroyed people
stronger than we are. Also those who are attacking people weaker than we are:
either they are already formidable, or they will be so when they have thus
grown stronger. Of those we have wronged, and of our enemies or rivals, it is
not the passionate and outspoken whom we have to fear, but the quiet,
dissembling, unscrupulous; since we never know when they are upon us, we can
never be sure they are at a safe distance. All terrible things are more
terrible if they give us no chance of retrieving a blunder -- either no chance
at all, or only one that depends on our enemies and not ourselves. Those things
are also worse which we cannot, or cannot easily, help. Speaking generally,
anything causes us to feel fear that when it happens to, or threatens, others
cause us to feel pity.
The above are, roughly, the chief things
that are terrible and are feared. Let us now describe the conditions under
which we ourselves feel fear. If fear is associated with the expectation that
something destructive will happen to us, plainly nobody will be afraid who
believes nothing can happen to him; we shall not fear things that we believe
cannot happen to us, nor people who we believe cannot inflict them upon us; nor
shall we be afraid at times when we think ourselves safe from them. It follows
therefore that fear is felt by those who believe something to be likely to
happen to them, at the hands of particular persons, in a particular form, and
at a particular time. [1383a] People do not believe this when they are, or think
they a are, in the midst of great prosperity, and are in consequence insolent,
contemptuous, and reckless -- the kind of character produced by wealth,
physical strength, abundance of friends, power: nor yet when they feel they
have experienced every kind of horror already and have grown callous about the
future, like men who are being flogged and are already nearly dead -- if they
are to feel the anguish of uncertainty, there must be some faint expectation of
escape. This appears from the fact that fear sets us thinking what can be done,
which of course nobody does when things are hopeless. Consequently, when it is
advisable that the audience should be frightened, the orator must make them
feel that they really are in danger of something, pointing out that it has
happened to others who were stronger than they are, and is happening, or has
happened, to people like themselves, at the hands of unexpected people, in an
unexpected form, and at an unexpected time.