Ataraxy
Undisturbedness of mind — the tranquil mental state achieved by removing false beliefs and unnecessary desires, the goal of Epicurean philosophy.
The Meaning of Ataraxy
Ataraxia (also spelled ataraxy in English) was Epicurus's supreme good: the calm, undisturbed condition of a mind freed from superstition, the fear of death, and the pursuit of empty pleasures. The Epicureans identified two sources of mental disturbance — false beliefs (especially religious terror and fear of death) and unnecessary desires — and addressed both through philosophy. Against the fear of death, Epicurus deployed his famous argument: death is nothing to us, since when death is present, we are not, and when we are present, death is not. Against the fear of the gods, he taught that the gods lived in blissful ataraxia themselves and had no concern with human affairs. The Stoics had a parallel concept — apatheia — but ataraxia was softer, implying not the extinction of emotion but its quieting. The Pyrrhonian skeptics also adopted ataraxia as their goal, arguing that suspension of judgment (epoché) brought about mental peace as a natural byproduct.
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Fun Fact
Epicurus ran his school literally as a garden — the Garden — and the community's quiet, simple shared life was meant to be a living demonstration of ataraxia in practice.
Words We Inherited
English words and phrases that trace back to this myth. See our full guide to English words from Greek mythology.
Explore Further
Ataraxia
💭 conceptEpicurean Philosophy
The Epicurean ideal of tranquility, a state of undisturbed peace free from anxiety and fear.
Nous
💭 conceptPhilosophy and Mind
The Greek concept of pure intellect or mind, the highest faculty of the soul and the organizing principle of the cosmos.
Epicureanism
💭 conceptPhilosophy
A Hellenistic school teaching that pleasure through modesty, knowledge, and friendship is the highest good
Apatheia
💭 conceptStoic Philosophy
The Stoic ideal of freedom from destructive passions, achieved through rational discipline.
Philosophy
💭 conceptLanguage and thought
An English word for the study of fundamental questions about existence, knowledge, and ethics, derived from the Greek philosophia meaning love of wisdom
Aporia
💭 conceptThe productive state of philosophical puzzlement
The state of intellectual impasse that Socrates deliberately induced — the recognition that you do not know what you thought you knew.
Stoicism
💭 conceptPhilosophy
A Hellenistic school teaching virtue, rational self-control, and acceptance of fate as the path to flourishing
Neoplatonism
💭 conceptPhilosophy
A late antique philosophical system teaching that all reality emanates from a transcendent, ineffable One
Athanasia
💭 conceptImmortality
Athanasia was the concept of deathlessness — the fundamental divide between gods (athanatoi, the deathless) and mortals (thnetoi, the dying), which defined Greek cosmology.
Catharsis
💭 conceptEmotional purification through art
Aristotle's concept that tragedy purifies the audience by arousing and then releasing pity and fear.
Pythagoreanism
💭 conceptPhilosophy
A philosophical and religious movement founded by Pythagoras centred on mathematics, harmony, and the soul
Mnēmosynē
💭 conceptmythology, philosophy
Memory personified — Titaness, mother of the nine Muses, and the principle through which knowledge and identity persist across time and death.