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Stoic Passions refers to various forms of emotional suffering in Stoicism, a school of Hellenistic philosophy.

Primary Passions

The Stoics named four primary passions. In On Passions, Andronicus reported the Stoic definitions of these passions (trans. Long & Sedley, pg. 411, modified):

Distress: Distress is an irrational contraction, or a fresh opinion that something bad is present, at which people think it right to be depressed.
Fear: Fear is an irrational aversion, or avoidance of an expected danger.
Lust: Lust is an irrational desire, or pursuit of an expected good.
Delight: Delight is an irrational swelling, or a fresh opinion that something good is present, at which people think it right to be elated.

Subdivisions

Numerous subdivisions of the same class are brought under the head of the separate passions. The definitions are those of the translation of Cicero's Tusculan Disputations by J. E. King.

Distress

Envy: Envy is distress incurred by reason of a neighbor's prosperity.
Rivalry: Rivalry is distress, should another be in possession of the object desired and one has to go without it oneself.
Jealousy: Jealousy is distress arising from the fact that the thing one has coveted oneself is in the possession of the other man as well as one's own.
Compassion: Compassion is distress arising from the wretchedness of a neighbor in undeserved suffering.
Anxiety: Anxiety is oppressive distress.
Mourning: Mourning is distress arising from the untimely death of a beloved object.
Sadness: Sadness is tearful distress.
Troubling: Troubling is burdensome distress.
Grief: Grief is torturing distress.
Lamenting: Distress accompanied by wailing.
Depression: Depression is distress accompanied by brooding.
Vexation: Vexation is lasting distress.
Despondency: Despondency is distress without any prospect of amelioration.

Fear

Sluggishness: Sluggishness is fear of ensuing toil.
Shame: Shame is fear of disgrace.
Fright: Fright is paralyzing fear which causes paleness, trembling and chattering of teeth.
Timidity: Timidity is fear of approaching evil.
Consternation: Consternation is fear upsetting the mental balance.
Pusillanimity: Pusillanimity is fear following on the heels of fright like an attendant.
Bewilderment: Bewilderment is fear paralyzing thought.
Faintheartedness: Faintheartedness is lasting fear.

Lust

Anger: Anger is lust of punishing the man who is thought to have inflicted an undeserved injury.
Rage: Rage is anger springing up and suddenly showing itself.
Hatred: Hatred is inveterate anger.
Enmity: Enmity is anger watching as opportunity for revenge.
Wrath: Wrath is anger of greater bitterness conceived in the innermost heart and soul.
Greed: Greed is insatiable lust.
Longing: Longing is lust of beholding someone who is not present.

Delight

Malice: Malice is pleasure derived from a neighbor's evil which brings no advantage to oneself.
Rapture: Rapture is pleasure soothing the soul by charm of the sense of hearing.
Ostentation: Ostentation is pleasure shown in outward demeanor and puffing oneself out extravagantly.

References

Andronicus, "On Passions I," Stoicorum Veterum Fragmenta, 3.391. ed. Hans von Arnim. 1903-1905.

Cicero, Marcus Tullius (1945 c.1927). Cicero : Tusculan Disputations (Loeb Classical Library, No. 141) 2nd Ed. trans. by J. E. King. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard UP.

Long, A. A., Sedley, D. N. (1987). The Hellenistic Philosophers: vol. 1. translations of the principle sources with philosophical commentary. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.

External links

@@ Line 20: / Line 20: @@
 ; Jealousy : [[Jealousy]] is distress arising from the fact that the thing one has coveted oneself is in the possession of the other man as well as one's own.
 ; Compassion : [[Compassion]] is distress arising from the wretchedness of a neighbor in undeserved suffering.
-; Befuddlement : [[Befuddlement]] is confused distress.
 ; Anxiety : [[Anxiety]] is oppressive distress.
 ; Mourning : [[Mourning]] is distress arising from the untimely death of a beloved object.