Abstract
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.
Highlights
The existential theologian Paul Tillich starts his phenomenology of anxiety from this deÞnition: “anxiety is the existential awareness of nonbeing” (Tillich, 1952, p. 35)
A methodological observation is necessary here: to reinforce the dialogue between life and death and the inwardness between vitalism and thanatology one does not need the Schopenhauerian notion of pain; one can transcend the phenomenology of pain through the careful exploitation of the more subtle and more original anxiety
Cioran and Heidegger would both agree that thanatology is at the core of existence, that “death is the heart of life”, that awareness of our own mortality leads to responsible acceptance of our existence
Summary
The existential theologian Paul Tillich starts his phenomenology of anxiety from this deÞnition: “anxiety is the existential awareness of nonbeing” (Tillich, 1952, p. 35). The concept of anxiety surpasses the anticipatory function of death, becoming an outpost of mortality It excludes all life forms and replaces them with death, expressing the “dark night of the soul” [noche oscura] described by San Juan de la Cruz. The Christian philosopher presents a spectacular conception of the existential subject: the objects of anxiety have a persona (an avatar we would say today), through which they receive the power to frighten In this line of argumentation, the theater of anxiety is that interactive “spectacle” in which the masks of anxiety besiege the soul and threaten it with destruction. A certain destiny would lead the one harassed by anxiety to total collapse: psychology, differently understanding existential anxiety, proves that this is not impossible Tillich offers his dramatic example, suggesting a solution as well: the unmasking of the threatening avatars (which usually disguise our greedy desires) diminishes panic. We should remove the things which block our perspective: if we vanquished the painful ordeal of anxiety, we would embrace clarity (Castaneda, 1972, p. 58)
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