Apathy

Apathy, in Stoic philosophy, condition of being totally free from the pathē, which roughly are the emotions and passions, notably pain, fear, desire, and pleasure. Although remote origins of the doctrine can probably be found in the Cynics (second half of the 4th century bc), it was Zeno of Citium (4th–3rd century bc) who explicitly taught that the pathē were to be extirpated entirely. Attacks on the Stoics suggesting that they were insensitive to the...