119. Fear, Boldness, and the Irascible Passions

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Lecture Notes

Main Topics #

Fear: Nature and Bodily Effects #

• Fear involves both a formal aspect (appetitive motion) and a material aspect (bodily changes)
• Bodily contraction: Heat and spirits withdraw from exterior to interior parts when facing imminent evil
• Trembling: Occurs in parts near the heart (voice, lower jaw, knees) due to defective heat in exterior members; especially noticeable in creatures (kittens, dogs) and children
• Pallor and thirst: Blood withdraws inward; interior heat multiplies, causing dryness and sometimes urination or emission of seed
• These bodily phenomena are not incidental but belong to the very essence of the emotion

Fear and Reason #

• Moderate fear: Does not greatly disturb reason; actually conduces to taking counsel well by creating solicitude and careful attention
• Excessive fear: Disturbs reason severely and impedes good counsel and operation
• Fear as a passion must be distinguished from fear as a vice—the latter implies a deviation from reason
• The apostle Paul’s injunction to “work out your salvation with fear and trembling” refers to moderate, salutary fear that aids proper deliberation

Fear and Operation #

• Moderate fear aids operation in two ways: (1) through bodily instruments by maintaining necessary alertness, and (2) through the soul by making one more attentive and intense in action
• Example: Athletes performing with moderate fear of losing play better than those without any concern; excessive fear causes collapse
• Excessive fear impedes operation both through bodily defect (lack of heat in exterior members) and through disturbance of reason
• The beam example: One easily walks on a beam at ground level but fails on the same beam between skyscrapers due to imagination and fear

Boldness (Audacity) as Contrary to Fear #

• Definition: Boldness is a passion approaching imminent danger on account of belief in victory over it
• Contrariety: Boldness is the true contrary of fear (not merely its absence), as the two are maximally distant in the genus of irascible passions
  • Fear flees from future harmful things due to their perceived victory over the one fearing
  • Boldness approaches imminent danger due to belief in victory over the danger
• Augustine’s distinction: When Augustine calls “audacity” a vice, he means audacity divorced from reason; Thomas speaks of audacity as a passion that can accord with reason
• Security is not the contrary of fear but merely the privation (absence) of fear

Boldness Follows Upon Hope #

• Causality order: Boldness follows hope as its effect, not as a principal passion
• Per se and per accidens: All passions reduce to pursuit or flight from something
  • Pursuit of good (hope) is per se
  • Pursuit of bad (boldness) is per accidens (for the sake of good joined to it—victory)
  • Per se always precedes per accidens in causal order
• When one hopes to overcome a difficult good, one boldly pursues it; when one fears a difficulty concerning hoped-for good, one despairs
• The four main irascible passions arranged by order:
  1. Hope (pursuit of difficult good) - principal, per se
  2. Boldness (pursuit of bad for sake of victory) - secondary, per accidens to hope
  3. Fear (flight from bad) - principal, per se
  4. Despair (flight from good) - secondary, per accidens to fear

Causes of Boldness #

• Hope of victory: The primary cause; one is bold when confident in overcoming difficulty
• Drunkenness: Causes boldness not through defect per se but through expansion of the heart and false estimation of one’s magnitude and power
• Inexperience: Those without experience of dangers are bold because they neither know their weakness nor perceive danger clearly

Key Arguments #

On the Relationship of Hope and Boldness #

• Objection: Hope regards good; boldness regards bad; therefore they are not ordered
• Response: Although good is simply before bad, boldness pursues the bad (difficulty/danger) per accidens on account of the good (victory) joined to it. Hope pursues the good per se; boldness pursues the difficult bad per accidens for the sake of victory hoped for
• Implication: Excessive hope leads to presumption; balanced fear and hope are necessary for virtue

On Fear’s Effect on Operation #

• Objection: Fear disturbs reason; therefore it must impede operation
• Response: Moderate fear does not greatly disturb reason and actually aids operation through both bodily preparation (heightened alertness) and mental preparation (careful deliberation). Only excessive fear impedes operation

On Contraries vs. Privation #

• Key distinction: Contraries are forms maximally distant in the same genus; privation is the lack of a form
• Example: Security is merely the lack of fear (privation); boldness is a positive contrary emotion with its own proper movement
• Application: One who holds a false opinion is further from truth than one who has no opinion yet, because the false opinion is a real contrary, not merely a privation

Important Definitions #

Fear (Timor) #

• A passion of the irascible appetite concerning an imminent evil that is difficult to repel
• Formally: appetitive motion of withdrawal from something perceived as harmful
• Materially: bodily contraction, trembling, pallor, and other physiological changes

Audacity/Boldness (Audacia) #

• A passion approaching imminent danger due to belief in one’s victory over it
• The true contrary of fear (not merely absence of fear)
• An effect of hope, arising when one hopes to overcome a difficulty
• Distinct from the vice of audacity, which operates without regard to reason

Contraction (Contractio) #

• The withdrawal of heat and spirits from exterior to interior parts in fear
• Arises from the formal aspect of fear (appetitive motion of contraction)
• Results in observable bodily effects: trembling, pallor, coldness in extremities

Per Se vs. Per Accidens (Essential vs. Accidental) #

• Per se: Primary, essential causation (e.g., pursuing good, fleeing evil)
• Per accidens: Secondary, accidental causation (e.g., pursuing evil for the sake of good joined to it)
• The per se always precedes the per accidens in causal order

Examples & Illustrations #

The Beam Example #

• A person easily walks on a beam lying on the ground
• The same person fails to walk on an identical beam suspended between skyscrapers
• The difference is not in the beam or the person’s capacity but in the imagination of danger and the resulting fear
• Illustrates how fear impedes operation through disturbance of imagination and reason

Backyard Fence #

• Berquist’s father built a wire fence about hand-width, perhaps hand-height off the ground
• Children easily walked along it as a game
• Same beam between two buildings would be impossible due to fear

Athletic Competition #

• Moderate fear of losing motivates athletes to play better
• Excessive fear causes collapse and failure
• Example: Minnesota team in Rose Bowl—excessive fear and despair led to performance collapse even against inferior opponents

Drunkenness and Boldness #

• Wine causes boldness not by creating defect but by expanding the heart
• The intoxicated person overestimates ability and underestimates danger
• This explains why intoxicated people are more prone to fighting and reckless behavior

Parental Authority #

• A good father rules his son for the son’s good (not like a master ruling a slave for the master’s benefit)
• The son has something to say about his own life
• Good parenting tames emotions somewhat so that when the child gains reason, emotions are more apt to listen to reason
• Contrasts with fathers who force unsuitable vocations on their sons

Notable Quotes #

“Work out your salvation with fear and trembling” - St. Paul, Epistle to the Philippians (cited as from the apostle)

“Those who are of good hope are bold” - Aristotle, Rhetoric II

“Audacity or boldness is contrary to fear” (audacia est timore contraria) - Aristotle, Rhetoric II

“Fear gives us warning against security” - Augustine, Confessions II

“Reason should rule the emotions like a father rules his son, not like a master rules his slave” - Aristotle, Ethics

“Security is mortal’s chiefest enemy” - Shakespeare

“The emotions are something you may have more refined than the other animals have, but basically we have in common with them”

Questions Addressed #

Is Fear Contrary to Boldness or to Hope? #

• Objection 1: Augustine calls audacity a vice; fear is not a virtue; therefore they cannot be contraries
• Response: Augustine speaks of audacity as a vice (divorced from reason); Thomas speaks of audacity as a passion. As passions, fear and boldness are maximally distant in the same genus (irascible) and are true contraries
• Objection 2: Hope is about good; boldness is about bad; therefore boldness cannot follow hope
• Response: Boldness has a twofold contrary—to hope (according to opposition of good and bad) and to despair (according to opposition of approach and recess). Boldness does follow hope because one pursues the bad (the difficult thing) per accidens for the sake of the good (victory) hoped for
• Objection 3: Security is contrary to fear, not boldness
• Response: Security is merely the privation (absence) of fear; boldness is the contrary—a positive emotion with its own proper movement toward danger

Does Fear Impede Operation? #

• Objection 1: Fear disturbs reason, which directs our actions; therefore fear impedes operation
• Objection 2: Those doing something with fear fail more easily (beam example); therefore fear impedes operation
• Response: Moderate fear does not greatly disturb reason and actually conduces to good operation by creating solicitude and careful attention. Only excessive fear impedes operation both through bodily defect (lack of heat) and through disturbance of reason. The apostle speaks of moderate, beneficial fear
• Application: In philosophy, moderate fear of being mistaken makes one use reason more carefully

Does Boldness Follow Upon Hope? #

• Objection 1: Audacity is about bad things; hope is about good; therefore they have diverse objects and are not ordered
• Objection 2: Desperation does not follow fear; rather desperation excludes fear; therefore boldness does not follow hope
• Response: Although the good is simply before the bad, boldness pursues the difficult bad per accidens for the sake of victory. Since hope pursues good per se and boldness pursues bad per accidens (for the good of victory), boldness follows hope. Similarly, desperation would not follow moderate fear, but it does follow intense fear
• Conclusion: From moderate hope does not always follow boldness, but it does when hope is vehement (strong)