Tag Archives: T. S. Eliot

The Passions of the Stoics

January 3, 2022 Martin K. Jones 4 Comments

I will show you fear in a handful of dust.

— From “The Waste Land”, by T. S. Eliot

The Stoics divided the passions into four parts, consisting of a two by two matrix of “good” or “bad” emotions versus whether they occur during the present or while thinking about the future.

Delight (or Pleasure): present and good
Distress: present and bad
Desire (or Appetite) : future and good
Dread (or Fear): future and bad

To Stoics all these passions were actually harmful, in the sense that they are irrational and instead should be thoughtfully managed. Instead one should have Three Good Feelings and but not Three Not-as-Good Feelings:

Joy (chara) instead of Pleasure
Wish (or Hope) (boulesis) instead of Appetite
Care (eulabeia) instead of Fear

What about Distress and its Stoic version (which might even be Calm or Ease)? And what of emotions for past memories? They might be Relief (past and “bad”) and Regret (past and “good”).

T. S. Eliot: Four Quartets

August 12, 2016 Martin K. Jones 2 Comments

At the still point of the turning world. Neither flesh nor fleshless;
Neither from nor towards; at the still point, there the dance is,
But neither arrest nor movement.