Apathy In Ancient Greece

What Is Apathy? The concept of apathy goes back to the Hellenistic Period. After the conquests by Alexander the Great, the Hellenistic World had started to grow. “The Hellenistic Age marks the transformation of Greek society from the localized and introverted city-states to an open, cosmopolitan, and at times exuberant culture that permeated the entire eastern Mediterranean, and Southwest Asia,” (“History of Greece: Hellenistic”). Greek was the most influential of all the countries within the Hellenistic Period. During the Hellenistic period, the Stoics had started to rise and participated in, “the substantial philosophical tradition of Greece” (“ History of Greece: Hellenistic). Founded by Zeno of Citium, Stoicism was “one of the most important and enduring philosophies to emerge from the Greek and Roman world” (“Stoic Philosophy of Mind”). “Stoics held that the correct end for human beings is ‘happiness’ or ‘living well’ (“The Stoics on why we should strive to be free of the passions”). Getting to
A philosophical concept, as known by the Stoics. To be apathetic, one has to free themselves from all emotion. “Emotion is part of our behavior. The Stoics knew and recognized that, and in their more subtle moments, they understood that you cannot and probably should not try to exorcise all emotion” (“Psychotherapy, Stoic-style”). Sharing emotion is not bad; however, when negative emotions rise, they seem to put a person at a disadvantage. Stoics and cognitive behavioural therapists would suggest, “What we can do is think clearly and logically about them, where they come from, and how we can replace them with more constructive emotions” (“Psychotherapy, Stoic-style”). We should remove ourselves from all negative emotions and replace them with positive emotions, or ‘should not care’ about what had happened to make them feel that