Cynic School of Philosophy
The Cynic School, founded at Athens about 400 B.C., continued in
existence until about 200 B.C. It sprang from the ethical doctrine
of Socrates regarding the necessity of moderation and self-denial.
With this ethical element it combined the dialectical and
rhetorical methods of the Eleatics and the Sophists. Both these
influences, however, it perverted from their primitive uses; the
Socratic ethics was interpreted by the Cynics into a coarse and
even vulgar depreciation of knowledge, refinement, and the common
decencies, while the methods of the Eleatics and the Sophists
became in the hands of the Cynics an instrument of contention
(Eristic Method) rather than a means of attaining truth. The Cynic
contempt for the refinements and conventions of polite society is
generally given as the reason for the name dogs (k�nes) by which
the first representatives of the school were known. According to
some authorities, however, the name Cynic arose from the fact that
the first representatives of the school were accustomed to meet in
the gymnasium of Cynosarges.
The founder of the school was Antisthenes, an Athenian who was
born about 436 B.C., and was a pupil of Socrates. The best known
among his followers are Diogenes of Sinope, Crates, Menedemus, and
Menippus. Antisthenes himself seems to have been a serious thinker
and a writer of ability. In his theory of knowledge he advocated
individualistic sensism as opposed to Plato's intellectualistic
theory of ideas; that is to say, he taught that the sense-
perceived individual alone exists and that there are no universal
objects of knowledge. In ethics he maintained that virtue is the
only good and that pleasure is always and under all conditions an
evil. Self-control, he said, is the essence of virtue, and a wise
man will learn above all things to despise material needs and the
artificial comforts in which worldly men find happiness.
Diogenes, generally referred to as "Diogenes the Cynic", is one of
the most striking figures in Greek history; at least, his
personality with its eccentricities, its coarse humour, its
originality, and its defiance of the commonplace, has appealed
with extraordinary force to the popular imagination. His interview
with Alexander, of which the simplest version is to be found in
Plutarch, was greatly exaggerated by subsequent tradition. The
followers of Diogenes, namely, Crates, Menedemus, and Menippus,
imitated all his eccentricities and so exaggerated the anti-social
elements in the Cynic system that the school finally fell into
disrepute. Nevertheless, there were in the Cynic philosophy
elements, especially the ethical element, which later became a
source of genuine inspiration in the Stoic School. This element,
combined with the broader Stoic idea of the usefulness of
intellectual culture and the more enlightened Stoic concept of the
scope of logical discussion, reappeared in the philosophy of Zeno
and Cleanthes, and was the central ethical doctrine of the last
great system of philosophy in Greece.
WILLIAM TURNER
Transcribed by Rick McCarty
http://www.knight.org/advent
From the Catholic Encyclopedia, copyright � 1913 by the
Encyclopedia Press, Inc. Electronic version copyright � 1996 by
New Advent, Inc.
Taken from the New Advent Web Page (www.knight.org/advent).
This article is part of the Catholic Encyclopedia Project, an
effort aimed at placing the entire Catholic Encyclopedia 1913
edition on the World Wide Web. The coordinator is Kevin Knight,
editor of the New Advent Catholic Website. If you would like to
contribute to this worthwhile project, you can contact him by e-
mail at (knight.org/advent). For more information please download
the file cathen.txt/.zip.
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