Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community  

Go Back   Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community > The Academy > Tilted Philosophy


 
 
LinkBack Thread Tools
Old 12-17-2004, 08:09 AM   #1 (permalink)
Registered User
 
frogza's Avatar
 
Location: Right Here
Phobias = manner of death philosophy

Years ago I came across a philosophy that basicly said that the reason people have phobias is because if they didn't they would meet an early demise in the manner they are afraid of. In other words, someone who is afraid of heights, would die before their time, by being careless on a cliff and fall to their death, if it weren't for their fear. I don't buy into this philosophy myself but I would like to find it again, just to be sure I understand it correctly.

Has anyone heard of this before? Do you know who first proposed it? Where can I find it? Thanks in advance.
frogza is offline  
Old 12-17-2004, 08:51 AM   #2 (permalink)
Twitterpated
 
Suave's Avatar
 
Location: My own little world (also Canada)
Sounds like one of those "old wives' tale" type explanations. In line with "you'll go blind" and all that.
__________________
"Few people are capable of expressing with equanimity opinions which differ from the prejudices of their social environment. Most people are even incapable of forming such opinions." - Albert Einstein

"Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools, because they have to say something." - Plato
Suave is offline  
Old 12-17-2004, 10:42 AM   #3 (permalink)
Tilted
 
Location: Columbia, SC
So what your saying is that it proposed that, for example, a person who is afraid of midgets would be predisposed to being bludgeoned to death by a mob of little people?
Guthumba is offline  
Old 12-17-2004, 10:55 AM   #4 (permalink)
zen_tom
Guest
 
A lot more people are afraid of clowns, cockroaches, mice, air-travel etc than are afraid of beds or cars. I would be surprised if the figures relating to manner of death had any statistical correlation with figures listing common phobias.
 
Old 12-17-2004, 11:10 AM   #5 (permalink)
Registered User
 
frogza's Avatar
 
Location: Right Here
I was fifteen when I found this and for about 15 minutes thought it was pretty deep. Then I started thinking and realized how silly it was. The only reason I want to find it again is I'm thinking that nobody whould seriously publish something like that, because it only takes a moment to see that it doesn't hold up. So I want to find it again and see if my fifteen year old brain just missed something. Does this idea sound at all familiar to anyone?
frogza is offline  
Old 12-19-2004, 12:56 PM   #6 (permalink)
Banned
 
Zeraph's Avatar
 
Location: The Cosmos
Indeed, this is much closer to superstition than philosophy.
Zeraph is offline  
Old 12-21-2004, 06:25 AM   #7 (permalink)
Addict
 
Master_Shake's Avatar
 
Location: Pennsylvania, USA
There might be some evolutionary purpose to phobias, if that's what you mean. Those who were afraid of heights were less likely to climb tall trees and thus were less likely to fall and die, or something like that.

I don't know what the midget phobia is all about.

But I think the idea of phobia destiny is superstitious nonsense.
__________________
-------------
You know something, I don't think the sun even... exists... in this place. 'Cause I've been up for hours, and hours, and hours, and the night never ends here.
Master_Shake is offline  
Old 12-21-2004, 08:48 AM   #8 (permalink)
Psycho
 
noodles's Avatar
 
Location: sc
i'm sure some of these phobias stem from death, but its definitely not the only root.
noodles is offline  
Old 12-23-2004, 12:05 AM   #9 (permalink)
Junkie
 
There are some psychological theories that say evolutionary process is partially responsible for why certain animals (spiders [ick], snakes, etc.) are feared more than others (rabbits, cows, etc), being that certain animals are more likely to be deadly. And also, it's also believed that humans have initial fears born into them (heights and IIRC loud noises) also for protection. Maybe that is similar to what you read earlier.
alansmithee is offline  
Old 12-23-2004, 11:43 PM   #10 (permalink)
MSD
The sky calls to us ...
 
MSD's Avatar
 
Super Moderator
Location: CT
I nterms of classical conditioning, a phobia is a conditioned response of intense fear to a conditioned stimulus of the phobia trigger. This association was most likely made while the person was still developing physically and mentally and the brain had not finished growing and wiring itself. Something happened that strongly associated pain with the conditioned stimulus.

This event could have been a fall from a ladder that generated a fear of heights, or an relatively serious injury that occured at the same time that the unconditioned stimulus was introduced. It could also be a "crossed wire" in the brain, where the phobia has no discernable cause.
MSD is offline  
 

Tags
death, manner, philosophy, phobias

Thread Tools

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Trackbacks are On
Pingbacks are On
Refbacks are On



All times are GMT -8. The time now is 03:51 AM.

Tilted Forum Project

Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.7
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.
Search Engine Optimization by vBSEO 3.6.0 PL2
© 2002-2012 Tilted Forum Project

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 325 326 327 328 329 330 331 332 333 334 335 336 337 338 339 340 341 342 343 344 345 346 347 348 349 350 351 352 353 354 355 356 357 358 359 360