Ataraxia

Ataraxia is a state of inner calm and balance, free from disturbance, anguish and restlessness. The term comes from the Greek ἀταραξία, formed by the negative prefix a- and a root meaning agitation or disturbance, and can be rendered as "freedom from disturbance". In ordinary usage of the period it also described the composure ideal for a soldier about to enter battle.

As a philosophical ideal, ataraxia is associated with several Hellenistic schools, though each gives it a different role. For Pyrrhonism it is the intended result of suspending judgment (epoché) on disputed matters: by not committing to opinions about what is not evident, the mind comes to rest. For Epicureanism it belongs to the conception of pleasure as the highest good, since it distinguishes pleasure in motion from pleasure at rest, and the absence of bodily pain (aponia) and mental disturbance is considered essential to happiness. Epicurus distinguished natural necessary desires, natural non-necessary desires and empty ones, and proposed reason as a guide for avoiding pleasures that bring more pain than good. For Stoicism, ataraxia is not the final goal, which is living according to nature and virtue, but a consequence of it: whoever accepts what depends on them and what does not, and frees their desires from external fortune, is free from unhealthy passions and therefore serene.

A simple example is someone who, faced with bad news, does not let panic take over but examines what can change and what cannot. Today the term is still used in philosophy and everyday language to describe unshakeable calm, and debate continues over whether the tranquility it proposes is compatible with full engagement in public life or with the emotions that give life its meaning.