Ataraxia (ἀταραξία) — A state of tranquility and imperturbability of the soul, marked by the absence of unrest and anguish. The Greek term is formed from the privative prefix a- (without) and tarachē (disturbance, agitation), meaning literally “absence of disturbance.” Ataraxia is one of the great ethical ideals of Hellenistic philosophy, though it was understood in distinct ways by the schools that championed it. For Epicurus, it is the goal of the happy life and follows from two movements: liberation from groundless fears — above all the fear of death and the dread of the gods — through knowledge of nature, and the limiting of desires to those that are natural and necessary, avoiding the vain ones. Epicurean ataraxia thus goes hand in hand with aponia, the absence of bodily pain, and together they constitute the stable pleasure that Epicurus identifies as true happiness. In Pyrrhonian skepticism, systematized by Sextus Empiricus, ataraxia arises as the unexpected consequence of the suspension of judgment (epoché): on finding that for every argument there is an opposing argument of equal force, the skeptic ceases to affirm and to deny, and tranquility follows that suspension “as a shadow follows a body.” A classic example is the traveler faced with questions he cannot settle: whoever stops tormenting himself in search of a definitive answer finds rest. Ataraxia thus comes close to Stoic apatheia — freedom from the passions — yet differs from it in not requiring the extinction of the affections, but rather serenity before what lies beyond our control.
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