Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
🧘 Calm detachment 🛌 No emotional response 😐 Emotional indifference
apatheia

apatheia

9.9
A calm state without strong feelings, seen as an ideal in Stoic thought
  • noun
  • /ˌæpəˈθiːə/
  • Formal
translation icon : apatía
  • By means of the spiritual exercise of reading and meditating on the martyrs' stories, individuals committed to memory important scriptural texts and arguments that not only created a meaningful rationale for the suffering and death of others, but also helped Christian readers face the prospect of their own suffering with the freedom from fear so characteristic of apatheia.

So in Greek we have this, this conception of apatheia, right?

Examples

  • This idea of apatheia—freedom from unregulated desires and especially exaggerated fears—is usually associated with Stoic thought and practice.

    Academic text (2006)

  • In Stoic philosophy, apatheia is considered an ideal state of emotional tranquility.

  • While the philosophical schools had very different ideas about how to achieve apatheia, each possessed practices, or spiritual exercises, designed to help individuals conquer the passions and reorient their way of thinking and being in the world.

    Academic text (2006)

  • Achieving apatheia involves overcoming the disruptive passions that lead to disturbance in one's mind.

  • The pursuit of apatheia encourages individuals to remain undisturbed by external events or internal emotions.

Synonyms

stoicism
vsapatheia
5 7.8

A calm way of accepting pain or hardship without complaint

values freedom from inner passions rather than enduring hardship without complaint
ataraxia
vsapatheia
  • Formal
1 9.9

A calm, peaceful mind without strong emotions

is the Stoic ideal of being free from inner passions
ataraxis
vsapatheia
9.9

A calm state of mind with no stress or worry

is about moral freedom from passion rather than mere absence of stress
acathexis
vsapatheia
  • Specialized
9.9

A lack of feeling for people, things, or memories that matter

is a general chosen state free from passion, not a clinical lack of feeling

Antonyms

passion
463 2.5

A very strong feeling that makes someone act, like love or anger

emotionality
2 6.7

The state of having or showing strong feelings

How Passionate

passion
463 2.5
equanimity
  • Formal
8 8.6
apatheia
  • Formal
9.9
apathy
43 6.2

Surface Forms

apatheia singular
apatheias plural

Morphology

apatheia = apathy (semi-transparent) = a + patheia + ia

The word is closely related to the common English noun 'apathy' (lack of feeling), but 'apatheia' is a more specialized/technical Stoic term, so the relation is understandable but not fully transparent for all learners.

Etymology

Apatheia comes from Greek parts a- 'without' and pathos 'feeling' or 'passion', the same root you see in sympathy and empathy. In Stoic philosophy it means being free from strong feelings so you can stay calm and not be moved by outside events.