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VOCABULARY OF PHILOSOPHY – ABSTINENCE

ABSTINENCE (abs teneo, to hold from or off).Voluntarily refraining, for a moral or religious end, from things which our nature needs or delights in. Its practice is implied in the supremacy of moral laws, whenever duty conflicts with inclination. It corresponds to Ἀπέχῶ in the precepts of Epictetus, Ἀνέχου και ἀπέχον; Sustine et abstine. Abstinence was much inculcated by ancient moralists, in order to make the soul more independent of the body. Thus the σωφροσύνη of Socrates, essential to a virtuous life, was a love of self-control, involving readiness for self-denial (Xenophon’s Memorabilia, IV. 3, 1). The Stoics regarded pleasure as irrational excitement, and counselled abstinence from it (Diog. Laert, bk. VII., Zeno; Zeller’s Stoics, &c, Reichel, p. 229).— V. ASCETICISM, STOICISM.
 
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