Cynicism

The Cynics contended that civilization, with its attendant ills, was an artificial condition, as opposed to a natural one, and must be shinned. So they advocated a return to natural life, which they equated with a simple life. That is, man can not be completely happy although lacking luxuries of any kind, if he were truly self-sufficient, having all that he needed within himself. It follows that the Cynics were exceedingly ascetic, regarding abstemiousness as a means to human liberation.

Diogenes' pupil, Crates of Thebes, had some influence on Zeno the Cyprian philosopher and founder of Stoicism. The general attitude of the Cynics as distinguished by that of the Stoics, is that the former viewed the external, material world with contempt; the Stoics with indifference.

Although not an important philosophical school, the Cynics attracted attention by their eccentricities and insolence, and their name is given to those distrustful of human nature and motives.

Foremost for understanding the Cynic conception of ethics is that virtue is a life lived in accord with nature. Nature offers the clearest indication of how to live the good life, which is characterized by reason, self-sufficiency, and freedom. Social conventions, however, can hinder the good life by compromising freedom and setting up a code of conduct that is opposed to nature and reason. Conventions are not inherently bad; however, for the Cynic, conventions are often absurd and worthy of ridicule. The Cynics deride the attention paid to the Olympics, the "big thieves" who run the temples and are seen carrying away the "little thieves" who steal from them, politicians as well as the philosophers who attend their courts, fashion, and prayers for such things as fame and fortune.

Only once one has freed oneself from the strictures that impede an ethical life can one be said to be truly free. As such, the Cynics advocate practice, over theory as the means to free oneself from convention, promote self-sufficiency, and live in accord with nature. Such practice leads the Cynic to live in poverty, embrace hardship and toil, and permits the Cynic to speak freely about the silly, and often vicious, way life is lived by his or her contemporaries. The Cynics consistently undermine the most hallowed principles of Athenian culture, but they do so for the sake of replacing them with those in accord with reason, nature, and virtue.

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