Tuesday, December 6, 2011

ataraxia



ataraxia [ˌætəˈræksiə] also ataraxy n.

1.) Freedom from disturbance of mind or passion; stoical indifference (O.E.D. 2nd Ed.).

Etymology: Latin ataraxia, adoption of Greek ἀταραξία, impassiveness, from ἀ, privative + ταράσσ-ειν, to disturb, stir up. Cf. French ataraxie.

"All science (and not just astronomy alone, the humiliating and degrading effects of which Kant singled out for the remarkable confession that 'it destroys my importance' ...), all science, natural as well as unnatural—this is the name I would give to the self-critique of knowledge—is seeking to talk man out of his former self-respect as though this were nothing but a bizarre piece of self-conceit; you could almost say that its own pride, its own austere form of stoical ataraxy, consisted in maintaining this laboriously won self-contempt of man as his last, most serious claim to self-respect (in fact, rightly so: for the person who feels contempt is always someone who 'has not forgotten how to respect'...)" (On the Genealogy of Morality by Friedrich Nietzsche, Carol Diethe (trans.), 1994).

(The Triumph of Marcus Aurelius, Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo, ~1770)

5 comments:

D4 said...

I could use that. I really could.

Michael Westside said...

I actually knew this one

Kevin Faulkner said...

Like it ! A good one worth remembering.

Kevin Faulkner said...

You most definitely have a penchant for Friedrich's thought !

MRanthrope said...

My robotic/detached nature prevents me from saying how awesome I think this word is.

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