« Is Pain natural? A Study of Stoic Philosophy »
Résumé
Physical pain, as a normal sensory reaction of our organism, is a physiological phenomenon that is part of human nature. However, suffering disturbs physical and mental harmony that naturally reigns in humans, thus compromising the ‘absence of disturbance’ promised by Hellenistic philosophy, whether it was called ἀπάθεια, ἀταραξία, securitas or tranquillitas animi. Experience of physical pain is likely to undermine the promise of philosophy to secure man’s happiness in all circumstances. It is in this sense that pain may seem unnatural, since it goes against the natural balance of humans. This ambivalence can already be found in Stoic thought, especially in Seneca the Younger, who gave a fundamental place to pain throughout his work. While the philosopher often claims that pain is unnatural, he also explains that a human being is subjected to it by nature. How might we explain this paradox? I will attempt to demonstrate that the apparent paradox about the natural character of pain actually proceeds from the polysemy of these two terms, a polysemy that, once clarified, allows access to the complex relationship between the different phases of pain and nature in the Stoic system.