Zeno of Citium · Philosophy
Zeno made a startling claim about the emotions: the destructive passions - fear, grief, craving, elation - are not blind forces that overwhelm us but <em>mistaken judgements</em> about what is good and bad. If that is right, then the emotions can be cured the way a false belief can be corrected - and the sage need not be their slave.
You learned that Zeno held the destructive passions ( pathē ) - fear, desire, distress, and excessive pleasure - to be judgements : specifically, false judgements that some indifferent thing is a great good or evil, plus an excessive impulse following from that error. Cure the false judgement and you cure the passion.…
Leads to Aristotle.
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