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Full Idea
It is the use of concepts which makes us master of our fears. We say: Death - and this abstraction releases us from experiencing its infinity, its horror. By baptising events and things, we elude the inexplicable.
Gist of Idea
We use concepts to master our fears; saying 'death' releases us from confronting it
Source
E.M. Cioran (A Short History of Decay [1949], 3)
Book Ref
Cioran,E.M.: 'A Short History of Decay', ed/tr. Howard,Richard [Penguin 2010], p.125
A Reaction
I like this idea. I'm struck by how weird our lives would become if people no longer had names. They are so deeply embedded in our experience that we don't notice them. Imagine if it were taboo to ever name death.
| 19372 | Concepts are ordered, and show eternal possibilities, deriving from God [Leibniz, by Arthur,R] |
| 16912 | Some concepts can be made a priori, which are general thoughts of objects, like quantity or cause [Kant] |
| 24129 | We start with images, then words, and then concepts, to which emotions attach [Nietzsche] |
| 23187 | Whatever their origin, concepts survive by being useful [Nietzsche] |
| 19633 | We use concepts to master our fears; saying 'death' releases us from confronting it [Cioran] |
| 10645 | We reach concepts by clarification, or by definition, or by habitual experience [Price,HH] |
| 8781 | The mind does not lift concepts from experience; it creates them, and then applies them [Geach] |
| 11859 | The mind conceptualizes objects; yet objects impinge upon the mind [Wiggins] |
| 12658 | Nobody knows how concepts are acquired [Fodor] |
| 17722 | The concept 'red' is tied to what actually individuates red things [Peacocke] |
| 5793 | Concepts and generalisations result from brain 'global mapping' by 'reentry' [Edelman/Tononi, by Searle] |
| 4926 | Concepts arise when the brain maps its own activities [Edelman/Tononi] |