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CYNICS

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Originally appearing in Volume V07, Page 692 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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CYNICS , a small but influential school of See also:

ancient philosophers. Their name is variously derived from the See also:building in See also:Athens called Cynosarges, the earliest See also:home of the school, and from the See also:Greek word for a See also:dog (KUwv), in contemptuous allusion to the uncouth and aggressive See also:manners adopted by the members of the. school. Whichever of these; explanations is correct', it is noticeable that the Cynics agreed in taking a dog as their See also:common badge or See also:symbol (see See also:DIOGENES). From a popular conception of the intellectual characteristics of the. school comes the See also:modern sense of " cynic," implying a sneering dispositionto disbelieve in the goodness of human motives and a contemptuous feeling of superiority. As regards the members of the school, the See also:separate articles On See also:ANTISTHENES, See also:CRATES,DIOGENES and See also:DEMETRIUS contain all See also:biographical See also:information.. We. are here concerned only to examine the See also:general principles of the school in its See also:internal and See also:external relations as forming a definite philosophic unit. The importance of these principles lies not only in their See also:intrinsic value as an ethical See also:system, but also in the fact that they See also:form the See also:link between See also:Socrates and the See also:Stoics, between the essentially Greek See also:philosophy of the 4th See also:century n.c. and a system of thought which has exercised a profound and far-reaching See also:influence on See also:medieval and modern See also:ethics. From the See also:time of Socrates in unbroken See also:succession up to the reign of See also:Hadrian, the school was represented by men of strong individuality. The leading earlier Cynics were Antisthenes, Diogenes of See also:Sinope, Crates of See also:Thebes, and See also:Zeno; in the later See also:Roman See also:period, the See also:chief names are Demetrius (the friend of. See also:Seneca), See also:Oenomaus and Demonax. All these men adhered steadfastly to the principles laid down by Antisthenes. Antisthenes was a See also:pupil of Socrates, from whom he imbibed the fundamental ethical See also:precept that virtue, not See also:pleasure, is the end of existence.

He was, therefore, in the forefront of that intellectual revolution in the course of which See also:

speculation ceased to move in the realms of the See also:physical' and focused itself upon human See also:reason in its application to the See also:practical conduct of See also:life. " Virtue," says Socrates, " is knowledge ": in the ultimate See also:harmony of morality with reason is to be found the only true existence of, See also:man. Antisthenes adopted this principle in its most literal sense, and proceeded to explain " knowledge " in the narrowest terms of practical See also:action and decision, excluding from the conception everything except the problem of individual will realizing itself in the See also:sphere of See also:ordinary existence. Just as in See also:logic the inevitable result was the purest See also:nominalism, so in ethics he was driven to See also:individualism, to the denial of social and See also:national relations, to the exclusion of scientific study and of almost all that the Greeks understood by See also:education. This individualism he and his followers carried to its logical conclusion. The ordinary pleasures of life were for them not merely negligible but positively harmful inasmuch as they interrupted the operation of the will. See also:Wealth, popularity and See also:power tend to dethrone the authority of reason and to pervert the soul from the natural to the artificial. Man exists for and in himself alone; his highest end is self-knowledge and self-realization in conformity with the dictates of his reason, apart altogether from the See also:state and society. For this end, disrepute and poverty are advantageous, in so far as they drive back the man upon himself, increasing his self-See also:control and purifying his See also:intellect from the dross of the external. The See also:good man (i.e. the See also:wise man) wants nothing: like the gods, he is avrapKis (self -sufficing); " let men gain wisdom—or buy a rope "; he is a See also:citizen of the See also:world, not of a particular See also:country (cf. Diogenes Laertius vi. 11 /thinly re 400 IrOuTEtay EtvaL rip, iv KOcr).ty).

It is not surprising that the pioneers of such a system were criticized and ridiculed by their See also:

fellows, and this by no means unjustly. We learn that Diogenes and Crates sought to force their principles upon their fellows in an obtrusive, tactless manner. The very essence of their philosophy was the negation of the See also:graces of social See also:courtesy; it was impossible to " return to nature " in the midst of a society clothed in the accumulated artificiality of evolved See also:convention without shocking the ingrained sensibilities of its members. Nor is it unjust to infer that the sense of opposition provoked some of the Cynics to an overweening display of superiority. At the same time, it is absurd to regard the eccentricities of a few as the characteristics of the school, still more as a condemnation of the views which they held. In logic Antisthenes was troubled by the problem of the One and the Many. A nominalist to the core, he held that See also:definition and See also:predication are either false or tautological. Ideas do not exist See also:save for the consciousness which thinks them. " A See also:horse," said Antisthenes, " I can see, but horsehood I cannot see." Definition is merely a circuitous method of stating an identity: " a See also:tree is a See also:vegetable growth " is logically no more than " a tree is a tree." Cynicism appears to have had a considerable See also:vogue in See also:Rome in the 1st and 2nd centuries A.D. Demetrius (q.v.) and Demonax are highly eulogized by Seneca and See also:Lucian respectively. It is probable that these later Cynics adapted themselves somewhat to the times in which they lived and avoided the crude extravagance of Diogenes and others. But they undoubtedly maintained the spirit of Antisthenes unimpaired and held an See also:honourable See also:place in Roman thought.

This very popularity had the effect of attracting into their ranks charlatans of the worst type. So that in Rome also Cynicism was partly the See also:

butt of the satirist and partly the ideal of the thinker. Disregarding all the accidental excrescences of the See also:doctrine, Cynicism must be regarded as a most valuable development and as a real asset in the sum of ethical speculation. With all its defective See also:psychology, its barren logic, its immature technique, it emphasized two See also:great and necessary truths, firstly, the See also:absolute responsibility of the individual as the moral unit, and, secondly, the See also:autocracy of the will. These two principles are sufficient ground for our gratitude to these " athletes of righteousness " (as See also:Epictetus calls them). Furthermore they are profoundly 1 See IONIAN SCHOOL OF PHILOSOPHY. important as the precursors of Stoicism. The closeness of the connexion is illustrated by See also:Juvenal's See also:epigram that a Cynic differed from a Stoic only by his cloak. Zeno was a pupil of Crates, from whom he learned the moral See also:worth of self-control and indifference to sensual See also:indulgence (see STOICS). Finally it is necessary to point out two flaws in the Cynic philosophy. In the first place, the content of the word "know-ledge " is never properly See also:developed. " Virtue is knowledge "; knowledge of what? and how is that knowledge related to the will?

These questions were never properly answered by them. Secondly they See also:

fell into the natural See also:error of emphasizing the purely See also:animal See also:side of the " nature," which was their ethical criterion. Avoiding the artificial restraints of See also:civilization, they were prone to fall back into animalism pure and See also:simple. Many of them upheld the principle of community of wives (see Diogenes Laertius vi. 11); some of them are said to have outraged the dictates of public decency. It was See also:left to the Stoics to separate the See also:wheat from the See also:chaff, and to assign to the words "knowledge" and " nature " a saner and more comprehensive meaning.

End of Article: CYNICS

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