☛ Encounters At The End Of The World, Werner Herzog, 2007

Can penguins feel anxiety? Can they get freedom’s dizziness? Is there such a thing as a free penguin? Those questions adress Kierkegaard’s conception of anxiety : “Anxiety is the dizziness of freedom” (English // French).

Anxiety is not anguish. And it’s not fear. In French, there’s a difference between “angoisse” (“anguish”) and “crainte”. “Crainte” is often translated as “fear” though there’s a French word for that : “peur”. Crainte” has to do with anticipation of something not desired, like going to the dentist… it’s not the same thing as “fear” which is usually linked to the knowledge or the perception of an immediate danger. The important thing is that “crainte” works with an objet as though “angoisse” (“anguish”) is without object (for Heidegger and for Simondon as well). Some have suggested that worry, anxiety and anguish are three degree of the same experience. More about that on Wikipedia : Angst, The Concept of Anxiety.