philosophy of fear

Michel de Montaigne did not write his essay ‘On Fear’ in an intellectual vacuum. Behind his seemingly personal observations about anxiety lies a rich philosophical tradition stretching back to Greek and Roman antiquity. By tracing these roots — Stoicism, Skepticism, and the moral psychology of Plutarch — we can better understand how sixteenth-century thinking about fear connects to the contemplative practice that also lies at the heart of Freemasonry. Stoicism as the Foundation Stoic philosophy is arguably the most important undercurrent in Montaigne’s thinking about fear. Seneca, whose letters Montaigne studied closely, regarded fear as a passion born from false judgments about reality. For the Stoics, fear arises when we treat external events as threats to our well-being, when true well-being resides in virtue alone. Epictetus put it sharply: it is not things themselves that disturb us, but our judgments about those things. Montaigne absorbs this Stoic insight but transforms it at the same time. Where Seneca aims for complete mastery over the passions, Montaigne is more modest. He acknowledges that fear is a human reality that cannot simply be reasoned away. This nuance makes his essay far more approachable than the sometimes severe Stoic treatises. He does not ask […]