Apathy: The Feeling of Indifference

Apathy is a common feeling of complete discontent for one's emotional behaviour.

Apathy etymologically derives from the Greek απάθεια (apatheia), a term used by the Stoics to signify indifference for what one is not responsible for (that is, according to their philosophy, all things exterior, one being only responsible of his representations and judgments). The concept was then reappropriated by Christians, who adopted the term to express a contempt of all earthly concerns, a state of mortification, as the gospel prescribes. Thus, the word has been used since then among more devout writers. Clemens Alexandrinus, in particular, brought the term exceedingly in vogue, thinking hereby to draw the philosophers to Christianity, who aspired after such a sublime pitch of virtue. [1]

The concept of apathy became more sympathetically accepted in popular culture during the First World War, in which the appalling conditions of the Western Front led to apathy[citation needed] and shellshock amongst millions of soldiers. Many often had no emotion or thought process concerning killing/death in general.

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