Philosophy & ThoughtGreek → English
Ataraxia
/ˌætəˈræksiə/noun
Freedom from mental disturbance, held by several ancient schools to be the goal of life.
The Greek roots
ἀ-
a-
not, without
ταράσσειν
tarássein
to disturb, stir up
Literally: “unstirred, undisturbed”
The story of the word
The sceptics wanted it and found they could not get it by trying. Sextus Empiricus tells of the painter Apelles, who could not get the foam right on a horse's mouth, threw his sponge at the panel in disgust and produced exactly the effect he had failed to paint; tranquillity arrives the same way, he says, once you give up settling the question. Epicureans and Stoics chased the same absence of disturbance by other routes and disagreed about everything else.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → English
- First recorded
- 17th century
In a sentence
Pyrrhonism promises ataraxia as a side effect of suspending judgement.
He described his retirement as ataraxia with a garden attached.