Online Encyclopedia
Search over 40,000 articles from the original, classic Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th Edition.
CYRENAICS
Online EncyclopediaEncyclopedia Home :: CRE-DAH
del.icio.us it!
|
CYRENAICS , a See also:Greek school of See also:philosophy, so called from See also:Cyrene, the birthplace of the founder, See also:Aristippus (q.v.). It was one of the two earliest Socratic See also:schools, and emphasized one See also:side only of the Socratic teaching (cf. See also:CYNICS). See also:Socrates, although he held that virtue was the only human See also:good, admitted to a certain extent the importance of its utilitarian side, making happiness at least a subsidiary end of moral See also:action (see See also:ETHICS). Aristippus and his followers seized upon this, and made it the See also:prime See also:factor in existence, denying to virtue any See also:intrinsic value. See also:Logic and See also:physical See also:science they held to be useless, for all know-ledge is immediate sensation (see See also:PROTAGORAS). These sensations are motions (KLV1]aecs) which (1) are purely subjective, and (2) are painful, indifferent or pleasant, according as they are violent, tranquil ergentle. Further they are entirely individual, and can in no way be described as constituting See also:absolute See also:objective knowledge. Feeling, therefore, is the only possible criterion alike of knowledge and of conduct. " Our modes of being affected (aaen) alone are knowable." Thus Cyrenaicism goes beyond the See also:critical See also:scepticism of the See also:Sophists and deduces a single, universal aim for all men, namely See also:pleasure. Furthermore, all feeling is momentary and homogeneous. It follows (1) that past and future pleasure have no real existence for us, and (2) that among See also:present pleasures there is no distinction of See also:kind, but only of intensity. Socrates had spoken of the higher pleasures of the See also:intellect; the Cyrenaics denied the validity of this distinction and said that bodily pleasures as being more See also:simple and more intense are to be preferred. Momentary pleasure (µovbxpovos ij56vq), preferably of a carnal kind, is the only good for See also:man. Yet Aristippus was compelled to admit that some actions which give immediate pleasure See also:entail more than their See also:equivalent of See also:pain. This fact was to him the basis of the conventional distinction of right and wrong, and in this sense he held that regard should be paid to See also:law and See also:custom. It is of the utmost importance that this development of Cyrenaic See also:hedonism should be fully realized. To overlook the Cyrenaic recognition of social See also:obligation and the hedonistic value of altruistic emotion is a very See also:common expedient of those who are opposed to all hedonistic theories of See also:life. Like many of the leading See also:modern utilitarians, they combined with their psychological distrust of popular judgments of right and wrong, and their See also:firm conviction that all such distinctions are based solely on law and See also:convention, the equally unwavering principle that the See also:wise man who would pursue pleasure logically must abstain from that which is usually denominated " wrong " or " unjust." This See also:idea, which occupies a prominent position in systems like those of See also:Bentham, See also:Volney, and even See also:Paley, was evidently of prime importance at all events to the later Cyrenaics. Developing from this is a new point of See also:practical importance to the hedonism of the Cyrenaics. Aristippus, both in theory and in practice, insisted that true pleasure belongs only to him who is self-controlled and See also:master of himself. The truly happy man must have Ippbvgats (prudence), which alone can See also:save him from falling a See also:prey to See also:mere See also:passion. Thus, in the end, Aristippus, the founder of the purest hedonism in the See also:history of thought, comes very near not only to the Cynics, but to the more cultured hedonism of See also:Epicurus and modern thinkers. See also:Theodorus, held even more strongly that passing pleasure may be a delusion, and that permanent tranquillity is a truer end of conduct. Hegesias denied the possibility of real pleasure and advocated See also:suicide as ensuring at least the See also:absence of pain. See also:Anniceris, in whose thought the school reached its highest perfection, declared that true pleasure consists sometimes in self-See also:sacrifice and that sympathy in enjoyment is a real source of happiness. Other members of the school were See also:Arete, wife of Aristippus, Aristinpus the younger (her son), Bio and See also:Euhemerus.
The Cyrenaic ideal was, of course, utterly See also:alien to See also:Christianity, and, in See also:general, subsequent thinkers found it an ideal of hopeless See also:pessimism. Yet in modern times it has found expression in many ethical and See also:literary See also:works, and it is common also in other See also:ancient non-Hellenic literature. There are quatrains in the Rubdiydt of See also:Omar Khayyam and pessimistic verses in See also:Ecclesiastes which might have been uttered by Aristippus . (" Then I commended mirth, because a man hath no better thing than to eat and to drink and to be merry; for that shall abide with him of his labour the days of his life which See also:God giveth him under the See also:sun "). So in See also:Byron and See also:Heine, and, in a sense, in See also:Walter See also:Pater (See also:Marius the Epicurean), there is the same tendency to seek See also:relief from the intellectual cul-de-See also:sac in frankly aesthetic See also:satisfaction. Thus Cyrenaicism did not entirely vanish with its absorption in Epicureanism.
See HEDONISM, EPICURUS; histories of philosophy by See also:Zeller, Windelband, See also:Ueberweg; H. See also:Sidgwick, Methods of Ethics and Outlines of the History of Ethics; J. See also:Watson, Hedonistic Theories (1845) ; See also: (A), (1898) ; A. See also:Wendt, De philosophia See also:Cyrenaica (1841); H. von See also:Stein, De philosophia Cyrenaica ((1855) ; T. See also:Gomperz, Greek Thinkers (Eng. trans., vol. ii. bk. iv., ad fin., 1905) ; Beare, Greek Theories of Elementary See also:Cognition; G. See also:van Lyng, Om den Kyrenaiske skole (See also:Christiania, 1868) ; and general ethical See also:text-books. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Please link directly to this article:
Highlight the code below, right click, and select "copy." Then paste it into your website, email, or other HTML. Site content, images, and layout Copyright © 2006 - Net Industries, worldwide. |
|
|
[back] CYRENAICA |
[next] CYRENAICS, MEGARIAN SCHOOL |