The demand for concreteness in philosophy stems from primordial anxiety

Evidence

The protest against the vague, obscure, metaphysical character of such universals, the insistence on familiar concreteness and protective security of common and scientific sense still reveal something of that primordial anxiety which guided the recorded origins of philosophic thought in its evolution from religion to mythology, and from mythology to logic; defense and security still are large items in the intellectual as well as national budget. — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man, 744

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Modern panic over comprehensible existence parallels prehistoric fear of nature; Suppressing the affective origins of thought yields intellectual sterility; Moral anxiety is intrinsic to existence, not imposed from outside (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• Suppressing the affective origins of thought yields intellectual sterility #expands (0.80)
• Moral anxiety is intrinsic to existence, not imposed from outside #corroborates (0.75)
• Postmodern pathology displaces anxiety and alienation with the subject’s fragmentation #expands (0.70) — Fredric Jameson, Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic…, 68
• Existential anxiety increases religious conviction while appeased anxiety weakens it #qualifies (0.70) — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 615