Ataraxia, Epictetus, Epicurus, Diogenes, Sextus - Essay Example

143565 Ataraxia is Greek for 'peace of mind' and serenity. Ataraxia word was used by Pyrrho and Epicurus for relief from worry or unhappiness. It is also tranquillity, almost apathy, freedom from disturbance, pain etc. It means living without a mental burden or preoccupation and the state is akin to life of pleasure and ultimate bliss. According to Stoicism, a Roman-Greek philosophy school, proudly claiming connection with Alexander, ataraxia is the only state of happiness that man can attain in his life. It shows the mind in right equilibrium in a philosophical state, a total freedom from worry or tension. It is a difficult state to attain in modern times, as it is almost impossible to be detached from the material world and gain access to philosophical state of mind. Hellenistic philosophy, also called philosophy of Plato recommended that man should be self-sufficient and self-dependent and should rely only on himself for happiness. It is important to find the right balance of mind, deed and outlook so that happiness is not beyond reach to attain ataraxia, imperturbability, which could also be termed as mere 'peace of mind'. "Ataraxia is a spiritual balance, the research of physical and psychical harmony so difficult to achieve by human beings. Ataraxia becomes a state of tension able to open our minds and be receptive towards life experiences" http://www.myspace.com/histrionia EPICURUS Epicurus gave a totally different meaning to ataraxia. This philosopher had given a lot of thought to death, its imminence and relevance in day-to-day life. He thought that without connection and thought of death, every day life takes a queer shape and hence, death is an inescapable truth and the ultimate aim. It is also a total blackout and hence not painful later, and we should avoid physical pain while being alive. And to live without being bothered by physical pain is the pleasure of life. "Since death is a total annihilation that cannot be experienced, in our present lives we need only live a simple life and seek always to avoid physical pain. It is pleasure, understood in this negative sense, that is the highest good for Epicurus. Freedom from mental disturbance. http://www.philosophypages.com/ph/epiu.htm EPICTETUS Epictetus stressed on basic good life of humans. According to him the good life itself is based on ataraxia and if one is conscious of it and controls his own life based on high values as a rational human being should do, he would live in complete happiness. He offered extensive arguments on complete and achievable happiness, based on his amazing understanding of life. "The eudaimonia ('happiness') of those who attain this ideal consists of ataraxia (imperturbability), apatheia (freedom from passion), eupatheiai ('good feelings'), and an awareness of, and capacity to attain, what counts as living as a rational being should. The key to transforming oneself into the Stoic sophos (wise person) is to learn what is 'in one's power', and this is 'the correct use of impressions' (phantasiai), which in outline involves not judging as good or bad anything that appears to one" http://www.iep.utm.edu/e/epictetu.htm He said people have to be motivated and inspired by virtue, act virtuously. According to him, life with right principles is the secret of attaining happiness. Total happiness cannot be achieved without a clear conscience and this cannot come without a guiltless life. Self-satisfaction and the feeling that the individual had taken every decision in life without selfishness, without any personal gain and with total ethical justice is the path that leads to a clear conscience and self-acceptance. He said this is the only way to attain imperturbability. DIOGENES Diogenes argued from an entirely diverse viewpoint. He said marriages should be made null and void and the family should become communal and the responsibility of community and State. He was so advanced for his time that he demanded patriotic citizenship and the citizenship of the world. Diogenes was considered to be very much ahead of his time. He preached ascetic life devoid of all luxuries and material demands and argued that an individual should be liberated from all binding ties. He advocated Cynic philosophy and thought it prudent for people to become ascetics. He said people should not stay away from hard work and manual labour. His leaning was towards a society, morally stronger, clever, shrewd, and astute with cultured and civilised way of living. "Diogenes further radicalized Antisthenes' contention of being independent of society's ethical conventions and intended to maintain the Cynic non-disgrace which may be understood in the sense of being cynical in the contemporary sense. According to legend, Diogenes even felt a kind of joy in harming the most fundamental moral commands of society". http://www.csudh.edu/phenom_studies/ethics/lect_2.htm SEXTUS EMPIRICUS Sextus developed an entirely different theory, which led the way to Skepticism. He was not particularly fond of the high ethical and moral ways propagated by other Greek philosophers. He doubted their relevance in real life. He also thought that they had not been very practical and the morality they theorised was too high to follow for ordinary mortals. He was more considered about the justification of any belief and argued that all such beliefs should objectively and accurately presented with evidence, analytic thought and precise reasoning. "Sextus' view is that although we must conduct our lives on the basis of how things appear to us, it is both harmful and unnecessary to assent to beliefs about how things really are. The methods for defeating or undermining putative justifications are intended to show that assent is both unnecessary and irrational". http://www.ditext.com/clay/h2.html PLATO Plato said, good life is the most important essence that would lead to total happiness. He said the total virtue with most or all desires controlled or completly extinguished, will lead to a total happiness of the soul. He argued on love, and said love is the first condition that would lead to just decisions and the best way of living a life. One cannot make compassionate decisions if love does not exist in his heart. Plato is the most important preacher and philosopher of Ataraxia. He theorised the noblest way of living to attain total bliss. There are arguments that he was not being very practical, which is true. But then, total bliss and material life cannot go together at all. There has to be a line of marking. Plato argued on perfect life surrounded by perfect love of humans, creatures, even nature, and this perfect harmony with everything around us, will lead to a perfect life devoid of unfulfilled desires, agony, torture and jealousy. "The theory is that the plane of reality is an imperfect copy of the plane of perfection. According to the Platonic view, humans only see glimpses of the good while existing in the plane of reality. Plato believes that love is the midpoint between reality and perfection, mortality and immortality" http://www.free-researchpapers.com/dbs/b3/peh69.shtml Sextus is perhaps the worse preacher of Ataraxia, because scepticism and ataraxia cannot exist together. He was not wrong, but his arguments do not apply here. They are too materialistic to be applied to ataraxia. He does not fit at all and he goes out of the ataraxian sphere. So, we cannot call him one of the philosophers who argued on ataraxia and showed the path. Scepticism suspends judgement on matters that cannot be subjected into scientific scrutiny. Good life and ultimate happiness too are not proven facts and hence, they come under the same category. By adapting this attitude, scepticism is said to be avoiding a number of unpleasant and controversial judgements. "This suspension of judgment applies not only to metaphysical questions (such as the origin of the universe or the nature of ultimate reality), but also to ethical, aesthetic, and logical questions. Skepticism refuses to accept any metaphysical, ethical, aesthetic, or logical propositions which have not been subjected to careful scrutiny" http://www.angelfire.com/md2/timewarp/skepticism.html Sextus is far removed from the blissful state of Ataraxia and does not qualify to be in the same group. He does not preach that humans should run after a particular state of mind, forgetting everything else life offers. "!Of course, there is an enormous difference between the life which Sextus promotes and that advocated by the Epicureans. Sextus asks us not to pursue nor to avoid anything too eagerly - certainly not with some opinion in mind that this particular object is to be pursued oravoided, while Epicurus insists that we must have opinions - the correct Epicurean opinion - about such matters," Warren (2002, p.5). Philosophers are considered to be both students and teachers. Almost all of them insist upon the freedom of body and mind without which creativity, goodness, daily life philosophy cannot be invented. Total happiness, growth, mental development cannot be attained while being surrounded by torture, killing and mayhem. Total happiness cannot stem out of undignified life. According to Plato, there is no happiness without goodness. If people are happy, that would result in a happy society and total happiness would be the outcome and this cannot happen in a society, where bad individuals exist. Every activity of the state and its people should be directed to the possibility of creating a happy state, peopled by happy individuals. "Plato's republic ascends, gathering all its citizens before it, and depositing each person on the heights of possibility. Arts, politics, even physical training, are all considered in proportion to the total wealth of the man's capability to energize himself to become a more integrated and complete person.He goes from the idea of happiness, to that of satisfaction, and ultimately, that of perfect human nature" Peabody Journal of Education, http://www.jstor.org/view/0161956x/ap050283/05a00130/1frame=noframe&userID=82d10629@gla.ac.uk/01cce4406400501b342f9&dpi=3&config=jstor Writing about the influence of these philosophers on virtue and right living, Baltzly (2001, pp. 161-162) agree that ".it was the philosophers of the ancient world who expressed most articulately those moral ideals which either, in some cases, motivated their contemporaries, or, in other cases, at least influenced significantly their art, their literature, and their politics." Relevance of these theories has not diminished even in modern times. In the ongoing discussions of rights and wrongs as the basis of human life, arguments for and against go on in every century. "Discussions about the appropriate nature of moral theory - whether it should guide human beings in their questioning of how to live or whether it should rather provide the criterion for right actions - form one of the main topics in contemporary moral philosophy," says Kopperi (1999, p.1). And the argument will go on as long as the connection between good life based on just decisions and total happiness exists. BIBLIOGRAPHY: 1. Baltzly, Dirk, Dougal Blyth and Harold Tarrant (2001) ed., Power and Pleasure, Virtues and Vices, Polygraphics Ltd., Auckland. 2. Kopperi, Marjaana (1999), Right Actions and Good Persons, Ashgate, Aldershot. 3. Warren, James (2002), Epicurus and Democritean Ethics, Cambridge University Press. ONLINE SOURCES: 1. http://www.myspace.com/histrionia 2. http://www.philosophypages.com/ph/epiu.htm 3. http://www.iep.utm.edu/e/epictetu.htm 4. http://www.csudh.edu/phenom_studies/ethics/lect_2.htm 5. http://www.ditext.com/clay/h2.html 6. http://www.free-researchpapers.com/dbs/b3/peh69.shtml 7. http://www.jstor.org/view/0161956x/ap050283/05a00130/1frame=noframe&userID=82d10629@gla.ac.uk/01cce4406400501b342f9&dpi=3&config=jstor 8. http://www.angelfire.com/md2/timewarp/skepticism.html 9. Read More