21 levels of Self-Deception: THIRD EDITION by Tom Wallace - HTML preview

T W E N T Y - O N E L E V E L S

a kind of serenity and peace with the world that puts it beyond happiness. Does joy also involve some kind of purpose? Not really — but there is something else going on with joy that is a purpose of sorts. Joy stems from acceptance — acceptance of ourselves, other people and of life’s circumstances. To achieve such peace with the world involves an ‘effort’ of sorts — a ‘letting go’ — an attitude of mind and heart that refuses to be phased by circumstances. So it could be said that there is a lot of ‘purpose’ involved in trying to live this way, but it’s not what would normally be meant by purpose.

Should we therefore aim for joy? Like its cousins, pleasure and happiness, joy often occurs as a result of doing something else. Perhaps, in the case of joy, that something else is to be aiming at peace and acceptance, as described above. Even these things involve a certain ‘stepping back’, ‘letting go’ and surrender.

From Epicurus there is ‘aponia’ — freedom from pain. And Epicurus (as recorded by Lucretius in De Rerum Natura) held that it is ‘katastematic’ rather than ‘kinematic’ pleasure that leads to ‘ataraxia’ (Greek = serene calmness and freedom from fear). It could be added, along similar lines, that it is the soul that feels joy, whilst pleasure and fun are normally associated with the sensual aspects of the body and the material world.

Many thinkers have made similar distinctions. John Ruskin, for instance, contrasts the Greek word ‘aesthesis’ — meaning just prettiness and animal pleasure, with ‘theoria’ — the spiritually

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