Cynicism was an ancient Greek philosophical movement, which held that we attain
happiness and tranquility by
denying established
convention. Known as the "dog philosophers" for living like dogs, Cynics denied conventional ideas of
wealth,
reputation,
pleasure,
property,
family duty, and
religion. They were typically
ascetics since they viewed
money as an
artificial convention. Of all the
Eudimonean schools, Cynicism was the least systematized, having no official treatises; the descriptions we have were authored by people outside the school itself. Rather than making their points in written argument form, the Cynics themselves attempted to
teach by example through their lives, which often involved deliberately
shocking speech and conduct. Their goal was to
grab attention and vividly
illustrate the problems with established convention. Cynics used several
metaphors to describe their self-appointed task. For example, they considered themselves as
messengers of God, the
watchdogs of humanity who would bark at illusion, and
surgeons whose knife sliced the
cancer of pretentiousness from people's minds.
Antisthenes and
Diogenes. The founding father of the school was an
Athenian named Antisthenes (440-370 BCE), who first studied rhetoric under the
Sophist Gorgias. Dissatisfied with Gorgias, Antisthenes soon gravitated to
Socrates, bringing a several of Gorgias's students with him. While a student of Socrates, he wore tattered clothes, had a matted beard and carried around a bag like a beggar. According to one anecdote, Socrates commented to him, "Why are you so pretentious?
Through your rags I see your vanity." Nevertheless, Antisthenes continued with this manner of appearance. After Socrates' execution, Antisthenes started his own school, which captured some of the flavor of Socrates' teachings in extreme form. Following Socrates, he focused on
moral concerns and taught that
virtue is needed for true happiness. Achieving virtue, though, involve mental and physical toil. In our quest for virtue, we need to exercise
self-control, deny pleasures, and study the names of things and their definitions. Also like Socrates, as suggested by the above anecdote, Antisthenes saw foolishness in the established views of the many, and was bold in exposing his discontent. Antisthenes' attacks on conventional politics were so strong that his school became increasingly unpopular, and many of his more scholarly students abandoned him.
The second great Cynic was a loyal pupil of Antisthenes named Diogenes (4th century BCE). Nicknamed "The Dog", Diogenes followed Antisthenes manner of appearance and contempt for convention. A highly visible ascetic in
Athens,
Plato went so far as to call him as "Socrates gone mad." Events of Diogenes' life are
sketchy. He was exiled from his home country of
Sinope when he and his banker father
defaced a
coin. He arrived in Athens and sought to be a disciple of Antisthenes. Annoyed by Diogenes' persistence, Antisthenes hit Diogenes with a stick, to which Diogenes replied: "Strike me, Antisthenes, but you will never find a stick sufficiently hard to remove me from your presence, while you speak anything worth hearing." Impressed by this, Antisthenes accepted him into his school. Diogenes' behavior was no less strange than his teachers'. He once
embraced a
cold statue in winter, illustrating how even our perceptions of pain are conventional. During the daytime he carried a lit oil lantern, holding it up to people, illustrating his
search for a virtuous person. Another anecdote, of questionable historicity, describes how
Alexander the Great sought to meet the strange Diogenes fellow that he heard so much about. Finding Diogenes living in a tub, Alexander said, "I am Alexander the Great" to which Diogenes replied "I am Diogenes the Cynic." Alexander then asked if Diogenes needed any special favor from him. As the sun was shining brightly that day, Diogenes replied," You could stand between me and the sun." Alexander then said, "If I wasn't Alexander, I'd want to be Diogenes."