![]() Here are five basic lessons that we may want to reflect on and try out for size: But if we want to learn something valuable from them, something we might be able to apply to our own lives in the 21st century, we should focus not on their specific practices, but rather on the underlying mentality. Of course, it’s easy to get caught up with the most outrageous and shocking behaviors of the Cynics, especially their unquestioned champion, Diogenes. As Usher puts it, they anticipated the modern minimalist movement and Marie Kondo has nothing on them. But the Cynics certainly upstaged all of the others in terms of actually living their philosophy. Let’s call them performance philosophers, in analogy with modern performance artists.įor the Greco-Romans in general philosophy was not just a scholarly pursuit, it was first and foremost a way of life, and this includes highly theoretically-inclined figures like Plato and Aristotle, never mind the much more obviously practical Stoics and Epicureans. Rather, they joined in the multicultural tradition of Socrates, Jesus, and Buddha, engaging in oral teachings and a particular conduct of life, leaving it to others-admirers or detractors as they may be-to chronicle them for posterity. Usher, the translator, reminds us, the Cynics were not philosophers in the sense of being scholars, and they hardly wrote anything down (except that they invented a whole genre of satire ). But all in a rather playful way, as their goal was to teach humanity how to live eudaimonically, not to be vicious or unpleasant for the hell of it.Īs M.D. But the Cynics took and run with it, wearing the nickname with pride and acting like dogs, barking criticism at the unvirtuous, and even biting back especially obnoxious people. “Cynic” means dog-like, from the Greek word kuōn. Or when Diogenes offends his fellow citizens because he masturbates in public and, when reproached, replies that he wished his hunger also went away by a simple rub of the appropriate bodily part! He throws away the drinking cup he was carrying in his knapsack muttering that even a youth was wiser than he himself had managed to become. Hence famous episodes in Diogenes’s life, as when he gets mad at himself after he observes a young man drinking from a fountain with his cupped hands. The Cynics, though, went further and developed a highly minimalist life style according to which very few, if any, things are necessary for human welfare and, most importantly, most social conventions get in the way of a virtuous existence. The Stoics understood human nature as that of a rational and social animal, and therefore taught that a good human life is one in which we strive to use reason in order to improve our relations with others. The Epicureans meant by this that it is natural, and fundamental, for humans to seek pleasure and stay away from pain, the two crucial precepts of their philosophy. ![]() One of a kind, one might justifiably say.Ĭynicism did have a direct connection with Socrates, as the founder of the sect, Antisthenes, was a student of sage from Athens (and, interestingly, of the Sophist Gorgias.) Cynicism shared with a number of other Hellenistic philosophies the notion that we should “ live according to nature ,” though the Cynics certainly took that motto far more literally than either the Stoics or the Epicureans.įor all three schools Nature is our guide in ethical matters (so much for Hume’s idea that one can’t derive an ought from an is !). Usher for Princeton Press’s Ancient Wisdom for Modern Readers series, features the well known antics of Diogenes of Sinope, but also profiles a number of other Cynics, arguably the most maddening and interesting of the schools of Greco-Roman philosophy. How to Say No : An Ancient Guide to the Art of Cynicism, translated by M.D. Plato, for his part, referred to Diogenes as “Socrates gone mad,” which, in a rather backhanded way, may be considered a compliment. The story goes that Plato attempted to arrive at a definition of “man,” coming up with something along the lines of “an animal that is bipedal and featherless.” Diogenes showed up with a chicken from which he had plucked the feathers and triumphantly declared: “Here is Plato’s man.” Talk about exploiting the power of sarcasm in order to make a point. Plato and Diogenes the Cynic famously didn’t get along.
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