tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3891434218564545511.post8800735122409543538..comments2024-03-27T20:37:09.185-05:00Comments on Alexander Pruss's Blog: AtaraxiaAlexander R Prusshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05989277655934827117noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3891434218564545511.post-34039801000156002212020-07-10T10:00:12.033-05:002020-07-10T10:00:12.033-05:00It still seems a somewhat pessimistic picture of l...It still seems a somewhat pessimistic picture of life. For even in this life most people can be with someone they love (indeed, all people can, if God exists). Alexander R Prusshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05989277655934827117noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3891434218564545511.post-81775997834024320212020-07-09T23:26:41.102-05:002020-07-09T23:26:41.102-05:00Or perhaps ataraxia is the best that one can hope ...Or perhaps ataraxia is the best that one can hope for for *this* life? Kinda dovetails with Buddhism's negative pursuit - that of avoiding suffering becoming impervious, impassible, in a way. <br /><br />Perhaps joy in this life is way too fleeting to be a realistic goal. We tend to feel joy only for some moments before returning to another state. Perhaps the idea is that this-wordly joy is too impermanent and fleeting to be a realistic goal for people. Joy, laughter, pleasure, love, all strike us as being better than ataraxia - but they all (at best) tend to come in bursts and then fade away. Ataraxia, by contrast, seems like a viable candidate for a good perpetual state - just calm and tranquility.<br /><br />Of course, in heaven we may be able to get joy and love in a continuous way. But the ancients were not thinking of heaven, but of what one could hope for in this life. Atnohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13138424784532839636noreply@blogger.com