αταραξια
| Transliteration: |
ataraxia |
| Definition: |
imperturbability, freedom from disturbance, equipoise, tranquility |
| Pronunciation: |
at-ar-ax'-ia
(hear)
|
Explanation
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Ataraxia is a state of consciousness characterized by freedom from mental
agitation.
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The derivation of the term is instructive: a is a privative, i.e. meaning
'not';
taraxe is the condition of being confused, disturbed, agitated, roiled,
muddied or darkened — qualities which unfortunately characterize our waking
consciousness much of the time.
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Ataraxia can be distinguished from a related condition, apatheia, or
freedom from disordered passions and emotions (pathos = passion). Thus apatheia
is absence of disordered passions themselves, whereas ataraxia is
the freedom from the mental turmoil that disorded passions cause.
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Hence, we achieve ataraxia in part by means of apatheia. It's
important to understand that the problem here is not having passions — passions
themselves come from Nature. But rather our wrong judgements and false opinions
— including false opinions of what's truly good —
cause disordered passions. In the Socratic tradition, means of attaining
apatheia and ataraxia include
practice of epoche (suspension of judgment), intellectual
humility, and the subordination of bodily appetites and ambitions to eternal, spiritual concerns.
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Ataraxia is valued for its own sake in Skepticism (Pyrrhonism), Epicureanism and
Stoicism. For Plato and Platonists, ataraxia — besides being pleasant
in itself — has instrumental value: a calm mind allows the 'eye of the soul' to see more clearly.
Hence our moral judgment, contemplative vision (noesis, theoria), and right
reason improve:
And the body fills us with passions and desires and fears, and all sorts of fancies
and foolishness, so that, as they say, it really and truly makes it impossible for us to
think at all. The body and its desires are the only cause of wars and factions and
battles; for all wars arise for the sake of gaining money, and we are compelled to gain
money for the sake of the body. We are slaves to its service. And so, because of all these
things, we have no leisure for philosophy. But the worst of all is that if we do get a bit
of leisure and turn to philosophy, the body is constantly breaking in upon our studies and
disturbing us with noise and confusion (taraxe), so that it prevents our beholding
the truth, and in fact we perceive that, if we are ever to know anything absolutely, we
must be free from the body and must behold the actual realities with the eye of the soul
alone.
~ Plato,
Phaedo 66c-e (tr. Lamb)
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There's also a positive feedback loop: improved insight, discernment and judgment make us
less prone to agitate our mind with false concerns, or to inordinately indulge or suppress
natural passions.
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It's often supposed that ataraxia implies passivity and quiet
contemplation, but that's not necessarily so. Ataraxia can also be experienced
during activity; this is action which is both internally and externally harmonized and in
accord with Nature — i.e., a flow state characterized by effortless action,
following divine inspiration without resistance (see Example below).
Example
Sextus Empiricus supplies an example of ataraxia:
"The Sceptic, in fact, had the same experience which is said to have befallen the painter
Apelles.
Once, they say, when he was painting a horse and wished to represent in the painting the horse's foam, he was so unsuccessful that he gave up the attempt and flung at the picture the sponge on which he used to wipe the paints off his brush, and the mark of the sponge produced the effect of a horse's foam. So, too, the Sceptics were in hopes of gaining quietude [ataraxia] by means of a decision regarding the disparity of the objects of sense and of thought, and being unable to effect this they suspended judgment; and they found that quietude, as if by chance, followed upon their suspense.
(Outlines of Pyrrhonism 1.28—29)
Significantly, the example involves an action — Apelles tossing his sponge at the painting. The anecdote could be interpreted as follows: Apelles was trying too hard to paint the horses. When this didn't work, he gave up control and acted in a completely spontaneous way, the effect was achieved; hence this exemplifies what we above called active ataraxia.
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