The Portuguese word confidence comes from the Latin
CONFIDENTIA of CONFIDERE, "to fully and firmly believe," formed by
COM that intensifies, plus FIDERE, "believe, trow," which derives
from FIDES, "faith". The same etymology is found in English,
CONFIDENCE, which also derives from Latin; in French, CONFIANCE; in Italian,
FIDUCIA of FIDERE, same translation as above; CONFIANZA in Spanish, and so on.
This way we can understand that the word reminds us of the universal posture of
certainty, conviction, determination, strength, safety, and more, hope, faith,
optimism, and still, liveliness and resilience. There is no doubt that the
words have influence on our lives and serve as a stimulus to our behaviour in
the face of adversity. However,
words and the stimuli raised by words should not be taken only as pills of optimism,
as if they were miracle drugs that give us the solution to our problems. Words
are the result of the elaboration of thought and, as such, should express the
good feelings that we bring with us. When we say this, we do not claim that
self-help would be effective as an immediate therapy because, as such, it only
leads to analgesia, not curing the diseases of the soul.
In the documentary Philosophy: A Guide to Happiness, based on
the book The Consolations of Philosophy, by the Swiss philosopher Alain de
Botton, he highlights six great thinkers on important topics of our daily
lives, and highlights the confidence with Socrates: "Socrates walked
through the market addressing people and questioning about the meaning of life
in a very interesting way, but also in a very annoying way. If you ask for the
explanations of people's beliefs, they often react aggressively. Socrates had
no such inhibitions. He would rather be considered forceful than to allow his
compatriots to carry on their lives without thinking. His intention was to make
everyone reevaluate their beliefs, he believed that everyone had the duty to
reflect on their lives, and that we all have the capacity to do it." Socrates paid a high price for
helping people to think, to assess the inconsistency of their existences, and
for encouraging the change of their poor goals (when they had them), poor
because they focused only on the here and now.
Confidence comes at the moment when we know, through
philosophical deduction, who we are, what we are doing here and where we will
go. When we deepen these deductions with the help of the Spiritist Philosophy,
this universe expands. We are not only citizens of a country, we are citizens
of the Universe. Our lives are not confined to the present moment; we discover
that we are heirs of the conquests of past reincarnations on route to a future
full of achievable promises; we learn that everything is temporary in the words
of the Spirit Emmanuel (even the missed opportunities). So we know that
personal dramas have their duration and the achievements, in turn, should
expand in the proportion that we conduct ourselves with absolute moral
tranquillity.
We live today in a world full of conflicts that reproduce
individual psychopathologies. Of course it is difficult to trust on this
construction, however, we have eternity ahead of us and the present moment to
build, as best as we can, knowing we can count on the support and encouragement
of the Spirits who love us.
Sonia Theodoro da
Silva - Bachelor in Philosophy
The Journal of
Psychological Studies - Year
VII l Issue N° 37 l November and December l 2014 Maria Novelli - English Translation ; Cricieli Zanesco - English Translation
