Dear Fellow Traveler,
Why do we experience anxiety? Does it ever feel like your anxiety stands in the way of living the good life?
In a recent conversation with Samir Chopra, author of the new book Anxiety: A Philosophical Guide, I asked: “What is the meaning of anxiety, from a philosophical perspective?”
Chopra explained,
As I acknowledge in the opening parts of the book, anxiety is quite a multifarious phenomenon. It is given many names and used to describe many moods, feelings, emotions, and states of mind. A couple of clarifying notions… one is that anxiety is distinct from fear in the sense that fear is of something or someone.
Anxiety is a fear of nothing in particular. It is formless fear, not fear attached to a definite target. If you have a definite target, then you have fear.
