Stoicism: What is Ataraxia?
A State of Mind for Troubled Times
There’s a story told by the historian Diogenes Laertius of the ancient Greek philosopher Pyrrho’s amazing ability to remain calm, even when in great danger.
The philosopher was travelling on a ship when a storm struck. His fellow passengers were terrified that the ship might wreck in the storm as it was tossed about by enormous waves.
Pyrrho, however, remained “calm and serene and, pointing to a little pig on the ship that was eating away, said that the wise man ought to repose in just such a state of freedom from disturbance.”
The pig was in just as much danger as its fellow passengers, but ate in blissful ignorance. Pyrrho thought that a man would be wise to be as serene as the pig was, since everybody on board the ship had no more control over the situation than the pig had.
The state of mind Pyrrho is referring to is “ataraxia”, a crucial concept to ancient philosophy that was somehow lost to the modern world. The word roughly translates to “unperturbed” (or literally: “without (mental) trouble”).
The word is central to three of the ancient world’s most prominent philosophies: Skepticism, Epicureanism and Stoicism. Each of these “Hellenistic” philosophies had their own approach to achieving ataraxia.
