BY BORDI JAEN
Passion is the slave of reason. – Fyodor Dostoyevsky
CRIME and Punishment was where I first encountered this quote. It stuck with me because, being a Stoic, I disagreed with it.
I simply could not understand how earthly passions could ever triumph over the will of reason which was a recurring theme in many of Dostoyevsky’s books.
Fast forward to a few months. During our Philosophy class, there was a lively discussion among two classmates and I regarding a quote our teacher shared. It was a quote of Blaise Pascal: “The heart has its reasons of which reason knows nothing of.”
We debated about which was more powerful, the passion of the heart or the reason of the mind? While we were having the discussion, an epiphany hit me.
Firstly, what is this earthly passion? In the simplest way, it is that thing we feel that doesn’t make sense in rational terms.
Passions are derived from our raw emotions. It is the result, methinks, of the combination of being able to feel and think. Some animals feel emotions. This is undisputable. Take a look at dogs for instance. It is certain that taking care of a dog will endear them to you. Animals feel joy and sadness in the same sense that we do.
We humans take it to the next level because of our ability to think. Take for example, why does someone love playing the violin? Why do others love receiving hugs and others don’t? Why does someone get mad at this or that?
The Stoics reasoned that passion must be a force curbed because uncontrolled passions inflict suffering upon ourselves and consequently to those around us. However, a modern misconception regarding the Stoic individual is that he is free from emotions. It is not true that Stoics should not feel love, joy, and all the goodness in the world. For example, when you do a kind act, you are bound to feel good because it is human nature. It is a virtue.
An unreasonable passion would be something like getting angry because your crush didn’t like you back. What is the point of getting angry? Will it make your crush suddenly like you? No. The situation will not change. Unreasonable passions are felt when one tries to exercise over something that we have no authority over nor have the will to change. Borrowing the words of Buddha, it is like taking poison in and expecting someone else to die.
Continuing the latter example, we cannot expect to exercise authority nor possibly change the attitude nor the preference of our crush, no matter how hurtful it must feel, unless you can hypnotize your crush or buy a love potion from Siquijor.
Likewise, people also try to falsely react to events that have already happened or are yet to happen still. Who in the end is suffering? Nobody but you. Uncontrolled passion is felt when man falsely judges their situation.
So how is one free from falsely judging their situation? By reasoning. Stoics have a concept for the right way of feeling emotions — “Eupatheia”, feeling our emotions in the way that is reasonable. If passion is a result of our ability to think and feel, then to control our passion means to reason, or to think logically.
Feelings, or rather, emotions, are human nature and thus always with us; however, this does not mean we cannot adapt to them. For example, it is bound to rain because it is dark but you falsely thought that “since it is not raining, I do not need an umbrella”. It rains eventually and you are soaking wet because you did not bring an umbrella. You certainly cannot control the weather. It is the will of nature. However, you could’ve at least brought an umbrella.
Similarly, if you do not bring reason with you always, you will be at the mercy of the elements. To be free of passion (called “Apatheia” by the Stoics) does not mean to take emotions away but to control them so they do not control us.
Was Dostoyevsky wrong, then? The answer is he is wrong but people make him right. Dostoyevsky was a realist. He saw in his time, as we see in ours, that men bring themselves to ruin and suffering because of their lack of self-control over unbridled passions. It is true that the heart has its own reasoning, as Pascal says, but it is also true that this reasoning can be controlled.
The Stoics were Idealists who believed in what each of us could achieve if only we will it to happen. Our human mind is what makes us a powerful species. When we lack the ability to reason, we ruin ourselves. Passion is only the slave of reason for the people who never thin k that reason could break from its shackles and wrestle passion.
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Footnote: I dedicate this article to the memory of my late father whose birthday was on the 25th of January and will have been yesterday by this article’s publication. No son could ask for a better father.
The past cannot be changed for all is said and done /
but your legacy lives on and is as eternal as the Sun. /
Your love was as bright as a sunshine ray /
In my thoughts I greet you a happy birthday./PN
