Apathy

[cizz]

I ran across this word and it tiggered some negative feelings for me again on how it was being used to describe something we need to rid ourselves of. The author never took the time to explain the different meanings of the word "Apathy" so his article seemed to leave the reader confused on what he was saying, he made himself sound contradicting! He was advocating apatheia concepts and practises but saying to get rid of "apathy" in which most English speaking worlds, very few understand or have even heard of apatheia, both meanings have been placed under one word, "apathy"    so I'm going to rabble and rant on it as usual! 

I get so tired of finding that most people will only look for the negative in things!! (I know, I know! who am I to talk!  ) But!

Apathy is not always negative, in fact some think of it as a virtue..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apathy

Although the word apathy is derived from the Greek ἀπάθεια (apatheia), it is important not to confuse the two terms. Also meaning "absence of passion," "apathy" or "insensibility" in Greek, the term apatheia was used by the Stoics to signify a (desirable) state of indifference towards events and things which lie outside one's control (that is, according to their philosophy, all things exterior, one being only responsible for his representations and judgments). In contrast to apathy, apatheia is considered a virtue, especially in Orthodox monasticism. In the Philokalia the word dispassion is used for apatheia, so as not to confuse it with apathy.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apatheia

Apatheia (Greek: ἀπάθεια) in Stoic philosophy refers to a state of mind where one is free from emotional disturbance. This might be translated as equanimity or indifference. This is the root of the word apathy. Apatheia must, however, not be confused with apathy. Apatheia is a positive term; apathy, a purely negative one.

Whereas Aristotle had claimed that virtue was to be found in the golden mean between excess and deficiency of emotion (metriopatheia), the Stoics sought freedom from all passions (apatheia). It meant eradicating the emotional response to external events - the things we cannot control. For the Stoics, it was the optimum rational response to the world, for we cannot control things that are caused by the will of others or by Nature, we can only control our own will. This did not mean a loss of all feeling, or total disengagement from the world. The Stoic who performs correct (virtuous) judgments and actions as part of the world-order experiences contentment (eudaimonia) and good feelings

[cizz]

He would have been better off saying for nummies like me    "Rid yourself of apathy but keep your APATHEIA!"  otherwise he was only telling people to get more active in being stressed out over all the things you have no control over 

[dgbygrace]

OMG!  Thank you for this!!! 

[cizz]

http://www.iep.utm.edu/epictetu/

Epictetus (55-135 CE)




Epictetus (pronounced Epic-TEE-tus) was an exponent of Stoicism who flourished in the early second century C.E. about four hundred years after the Stoic school of Zeno of Citium was established in Athens. He lived and worked, first as a student in Rome, and then as a teacher with his own school in Nicopolis in Greece. Our knowledge of his philosophy and his method as a teacher comes to us via two works composed by his student Arrian, the Discourses and the Handbook. Although Epictetus based his teaching on the works of the early Stoics (none of which survives) which dealt with the three branches of Stoic thought, logic, physics and ethics, the Discourses and the Handbook concentrate almost exclusively on ethics. The role of the Stoic teacher was to encourage his students to live the philosophic life, whose end was eudaimonia ('happiness' or 'flourishing'), to be secured by living the life of reason, which - for Stoics -  meant living virtuously and living 'according to nature'. The eudaimonia ('happiness') of those who attain this ideal consists of ataraxia (imperturbability), apatheia (freedom from passion), eupatheiai ('good feelings'), and an awareness of, and capacity to attain, what counts as living as a rational being should. The key to transforming oneself into the Stoic sophos (wise person) is to learn what is 'in one's power', and this is the correct use of impressions' (phantasiai), which in outline involves not judging as good or bad anything that appears to one. For the only thing that is good is acting virtuously (that is, motivated by virtue), and the only thing that is bad is the opposite, acting viciously (that is, motivated by vice). Someone who seeks to make progress as a Stoic (a prokopt'n) understands that their power of rationality is a fragment of God whose material body - a sort of rarefied fiery air - blends with the whole of creation, intelligently forming and directing undifferentiated matter to make the world as we experience it. The task of the prokopt'n, therefore, is to 'live according to nature', which means (a) pursuing a course through life intelligently responding to one's own needs and duties as a sociable human being, but also (b) wholly accepting one's fate and the fate of the world as coming directly from the divine intelligence which makes the world the best that is possible.

[cizz]

I like Epictetus' philosophy because it reminds me of my own personal goals which is to learn the difference in what I can control and what God controls, "keeps me asking if I'm trying to take over God's role?"  But most people that try to explain Epictetus' thoughts seem to imply that he thought we were not in control of creating along with God...which I feel that we are and when we use these apatheia concepts and apply them in self checks and corrections on ourselves God seems to open the door for changing the things around us...co creating with God! Do I want to rid myself of all emotions or even just my negative emotions? 



That would be true apathy in English terms...dead inside! I want to learn to stop blindly reacting to all my emotions and learn to use them for what God designed them to be, signs and signals for me to do a self check and ask why do I feel this way? What is causing it? And I can say it is never an outside thing causing the emotion...I absolutely like my emotions since I have started learning to not blindly react to them and I'm very grateful that God designed them to be my helpers in seeing myself because when I can see myself better then I can see the outside world a little more clearly..

What did Jesus say, remove the timber from your own eye first, then you can see clearly to help another!

I had someone once tell me that they felt compelled to label me as "a self regulator"...I do believe God has designed all of us to be just that and that God is teaching us how to use that..like teaching His children..

[dgbygrace]

WOW.  This makes so much sense!  My soul resonates in harmony somehow.  Thank you for bringing this.  I will look up more!