Clearing up its misconceptions
These two ancient concepts often cause confusion and misunderstanding. In this article, I'd like to explain them in an understandable way that's easy to grasp and helps on your Stoic journey. As a slight hint: You'll also get an explanation why Stoics aren't emotionless, unlike what you might commonly think.
What is ataraxia?
Ataraxia means tranquility or equanimity. It describes a state of clear and solid tranquility free from distress and worry. You can picture it as being in a chill state of calmness, where your worries, fears, and other troubles dissolve into thin air.
In Stoicism, unlike Epicureanism, ataraxia is not the goal of life. Instead, Stoics focus on living in accordance with nature, meaning living virtuously. According to the ancient Stoics, such a life would lead to apatheia and, as a consequence, to eudaimonia.
What is apatheia?
Apatheia means being free of passion. It's a state where your mind is not disturbed by passions. Rather, it's like finding a calm oasis within yourself amidst the chaos of external and internal forces trying to get you off balance. In Stoicism, apatheia is a trait and characteristic of the sage.
Apatheia has nothing to do with apathy! That's one of the most common misunderstandings. Apathy is impassiveness and a lack of emotion or interest in something. In Stoicism, however, apatheia is a product of living virtuously. Not reacting emotionally to things we can't control is the ideal Stoic response to external events. Instead, we should practice acceptance and focus all our energy on the next steps we can control.
That's not at all being emotionless or indifferent. While feelings can still arise, it's about actively choosing not to let those external circumstances dictate how and what we feel and how we react. Instead, we recognize fear or anger about a situation (we become aware of our feelings), use the power of our minds to analyze it, form a proper and rational judgment, and finally act wisely in a way that helps us rather than impedes us.
But let's explain it in a more tangible example:
Imagine you're a sailor navigating a ship in the vast open sea. Suddenly, a storm brews up. High waves start crashing powerfully onto your ship. The noise from the roaring thunder is incredible; you can't understand your own words anymore, and lightning descends from the sky.
How would you respond?
Option A, the Non-Stoic way: Naturally, emotions of fear, worry, and stress arise, so you scream at the sky, curse the winds, and lament over the unfairness of your situation. A reaction that only stokes the fire of fear and sorrow, taking all of your capacity to think clearly.
Option B, the Stoic way: While emotions in such circumstances still arise, apatheia is like finding the eye of the storm within yourself. In a split second, you acknowledge your feelings and the dangerous storm you're in. You accept it as something beyond your control and remind yourself that your emotions are not the best counselor for now. You take a deep breath to remain calm and clear-headed. Reason and logic displace fear and worry, and you begin to think about what's best to do next to escape this situation and navigate through the storm successfully and still alive.
That's the essence of apatheia; not indifferent and not emotionless, but free from passions and ready to respond tranquil and rationally.
The Stoic passions
To fully grasp the idea of apatheia, it's helpful to comprehend the Stoic view on passions. In Stoicism, passions are used to discuss emotions like fear or anger. A passion is like a troublesome and misleading force inside that comes into existence when we err and fail in correct reasoning. It's derived from the Greek word pathos, which refers to the suffering one experiences.
It's crucial to understand that the ancient Stoics used the terms "passion" or "emotion" differently from our modern understanding. Thus, the most common misunderstanding that Stoics are emotionless or passionless is simply wrong. Instead, the Stoic philosophers separated passions into unhealthy and healthy ones.
Someone free of passions (apatheia) experiences good feelings (eupatheia) instead. Those good feelings come from right judgment and are not excessive, but still, they are proper rational emotions.
The four primary passions of Stoicism are:
- Lust: An irrational desire or pursuit of something that you think will be good, but in reality, it's actually bad.
- Fear: An irrational aversion where you try avoiding something you expect could be dangerous.
- Distress: A sudden feeling and opinion that something terrible is happening, which makes us feel down.
- Delight: An opinion that something good is happening. It's an irrational burst of joy when you can't help but feel elated.
So, if you can free yourself from those passions, you can reach apatheia. But you're not becoming an emotionless robot, as many critics argue. Instead, you replace those irrational passions with their rational counterparts.
The three good feelings in Stoicism are:
- Joy (the opposite of delight or pleasure).
- Wish (the opposite of lust or craving).
- Caution (the opposite of fear).
The attentive reader will certainly have noticed that a counterpart to distress is missing. The simple explanation: The Stoics had no counterpart.
By now, it should be clear that Stoics aren't emotionless and that apatheia has nothing to do with becoming a human machine without feelings. Whenever someone tells you Stoics suppress their emotions and feel nothing, you can now reference this explanation.
In conclusion, apatheia is best understood as equanimity when facing life's challenges. Using reason and proper judgment, we can avoid being preoccupied with trivial matters (or things we don't control) and instead find joy in what truly matters (things we have control over).
What's the difference between ataraxia and apatheia?
As we've seen, apatheia means being free of passion, and ataraxia means tranquility or equanimity where one is free from distress. But what does that exactly mean?
While both terms describe a state of tranquility, the focus of ataraxia lies on avoiding pain. Differently, apatheia focuses on overcoming and replacing passions. This is also a major distinction between the Epicureans, whose goal ataraxia was, and the ancient Stoic philosophers.
A common example is that Epicureans shouldn't engage in public service or politics to avoid pain. However, the Stoics aspire for an excellent character by applying virtue and following nature. That led them to embrace their social lives and seek public service. Cosmopolitanism and the circles of concern are two major characteristics of Stoicism that emphasize the importance of our social nature.
- Ataraxia: Avoiding and removing oneself from external disturbances.
- Apatheia: Actively controlling our responses to events by applying reason and logic.
To sum up, ataraxia is more passive, while apatheia is active. Ataraxia seeks to avoid situations where humans are likely to experience negative emotions. On the other hand, apatheia is a state that is derived from actively engaging with emotions while ensuring that we don't let them control us.
What does it mean for your life?
The first key takeaway of yours should be the understanding of why Stoics are not emotionless and that you don't need to be a futuristic robot to practice Stoicism and choose it as your life's philosophy. Without any doubt, you can live Stoically without having to ignore your emotions and feelings.
The second takeaway is that apatheia is a byproduct of living with virtue and not a goal a Stoic wants to achieve. It's something you get along the way to becoming a wise and virtuous human being.
By understanding those two takeaways, you can begin to cultivate inner peace by applying Stoic teachings to your everyday life while still allowing yourself to feel emotions. This means you can take the good with the bad and not be swayed by emotional highs or lows but remain balanced in your approach to life.
Next time you find yourself in a stormy situation, remember the lessons of apatheia and choose option B - the Stoic way. Like the sailor in our example, who calmly navigates through the storm and reaches safe shores, you can also navigate life and keep your peace of mind.
Resources:
