Apatheia

In

Whereas Aristotle had claimed that virtue was to be found in the golden mean between an excess and a deficiency of emotion (metriopatheia), the Stoics thought that living virtuously provided freedom from the passions, resulting in apatheia.^[2] It meant eradicating the tendency to react emotionally or egotistically to external events, the things that cannot be controlled. For Stoics, it was the optimally rational response to the world, for things cannot be controlled if they are caused by the will of others or by Nature; only one's own will can be controlled. That did not mean a loss of feeling, or total disengagement from the world. The Stoic who performs correct (virtuous) judgments and actions as part of the world order experiences contentment (eudaimonia) and good feelings (eupatheia).

Pain is slight if opinion has added nothing to it;... in thinking it slight, you will make it slight. Everything depends on opinion; ambition, luxury, greed, hark back to opinion. It is according to opinion that we suffer.... So let us also win the way to victory in all our struggles, – for the reward is... virtue, steadfastness of soul, and a peace that is won for all time.

— Seneca, Epistles, lxxviii. 13–16

Rivals of Apatheia

Followers of Epicurus were the main opponents of stoicism and apatheia. Instead of apatheia, they believed in a similar form of living which is ataraxia, a related concept in Epicureanism. Some Latin Stoic authors, such as Seneca the Younger use the term interchangeably with apatheia. In Epicureanism ataraxia comes from freedom from pain and fear and results in a life full of tranquility, imperturbability, and without trouble. The main difference between these terms is how it is achieved. Apatheia was seen as a byproduct of living a virtuous life and was not a goal for Stoics to directly attempt to achieve. For followers of Epicurus, ataraxia was a goal that could be achieved through the avoidance of pain which comes primarily from social and political life.^[2]

Religion

The term was later adopted by

Apatheia has many different interpretations and uses in the religious world that cause for debate over which viewpoint is the best one. Evagrius Ponticus believed there to be eight passions that the soul must be free of which include lust, gluttony, pride, envy, greed, boredom, anger, and self-love. These passions were described to be unnatural movements of the souls. Apatheia would be used to help reach the point where the mind is independent of the bodily senses. Maximus the Confessor believed in the same eight unnatural passions but he instead uses apatheia to transform the passions into agape, or non-egoistic love.^[4]

See also

Look up apatheia in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• Hesychia, or stillness
• Upekkha, a related concept described in Buddhism
• Vairagya, a related concept in Hindu philosophy.

References