", A man said to him one day, "Many people praise you." Diocles also attributes the following apophthegms to him.
The ninth book contains an essay on the Odyssey; one on the Magic Wand; the Minerva, or an essay on Telemachus; an essay on Helen and Penelope; one on Proteus; the Cyclops, being an essay on Ulysses; an essay on the Use of Wine, or on Drunkenness, or on the Cyclops; one on Circe; one on Amphiaraus; one on Ulysses and Penelope, and also on Ulysses' Dog. His close friendship with Socrates is well documented in Xenophon’s dialogues, and his importance would have been aided by his position as an older and esteemed member of Socrates’ circle. For only $5 per month you can become a member and support our mission to engage people with cultural heritage and to improve history education worldwide. 6.13). Thank you! Thus, the Cynic movement is viewed as having begun with the Socratic ethical practices of Antisthenes, practices which receive their more robust instantiations through the life of Diogenes of Sinope. Prudence is the safest fortification; for it can neither fall to pieces nor be betrayed. He was the teacher to Diogenes of Sinope, and he is regarded by Diogenes Laertius as the first Cynic philosopher. It is better to fight with a few good men against all the wicked, than with many wicked men against a few good men. Author's Note: Grateful Acknowledgment to Peitho's Web site for their generous translation of Diogenes Laertius. For Diogenes the simple life meant not only disregard of luxury but also disregard of laws and customs of organized, and therefore “conventional,” communities. His followers positioned themselves as watchdogs of morality. These sources are not, however, without problems: Xenophon is portraying Antisthenes as an interlocutor, which leads some scholars to question whether this character is in fact representative of the historical Antisthenes; Diogenes Laertius is thought of as a dubious source due to his penchant for recounting contradictory stories from multiple sources. Another was, "That those who wish to be immortal ought to live piously and justly." On one occasion he was asked why he had but few disciples and said, "Because I drove them away with a silver rod." When Diogenes asked him for a tunic, he bade him fold his cloak. For having met with some young men of Pontus, who had come to Athens, on account of the reputation of Socrates, he took them to Anytus telling them, that in moral philosophy he was wiser than Socrates; and they who stood by were indignant at this, and drove him away. By signing up for this email, you are agreeing to news, offers, and information from Encyclopaedia Britannica.
Web. Good men are friends. The program for life advocated by Diogenes began with self-sufficiency, or the ability to possess within oneself all that one needs for happiness.
How much danger could you have avoided for one obol!" Diogenes, (born, Sinope, Paphlygonia—died c. 320 bce, probably at Corinth, Greece), archetype of the Cynics, a Greek philosophical sect that stressed stoic self-sufficiency and the rejection of luxury.
Some scholars are more dubious. He is the only one of all the pupils of Socrates, whom Theopompus praises and speaks of as clever, and able to persuade whomsoever he pleased by the sweetness of his conversation. Reason, for Antisthenes, is the foundation of virtue. On another occasion, the question was put to him by some one, as Phanias relates, in his treatise on the Philosophers of the Socratic school, what a man could do to show himself an honourable and a virtuous man; and he replied, "If you attend to those who understand the subject, and learn from them that you ought to shun the bad habits which you have." In addition to eschewing luxuries so many of his fellow Athenians sought, he demonstrated an ad hoc and improvisational sense of humor which allowed him to ridicule commonly held beliefs and the mores of Athenian culture, a practice which would be perfected by Diogenes of Sinope. A freelance writer and former part-time Professor of Philosophy at Marist College, New York, Joshua J. Antisthenes’ ethical views also, however, represent an innovation, and do not merely repeat those held by Socrates. He considered obscurity of fame a good thing, and equally good with labour. I. ANTISTHENES was an Athenian, the son of Antisthenes. Walls of defense must be constructed in our own impregnable reasonings” (D.L. Finally, the privileging of virtue and the claim that virtue is itself sufficient for happiness will be central to Stoic ethics. One must prepare one's self a fortress in one's own impregnable thoughts.
He said once to a youth from Pontus who was on the point of coming to him to be his pupil, and was asking him what things he wanted, "You want a new book, and a new pen, and a new tablet;" - meaning a new mind. The story of how Diogenes and Antisthenes came together is an interesting one. Yonge. His privileging of practice over learning, or deeds over words, is clearly anti-theoretical, but it should not be viewed as opposed to reason. The translation is by C.D. And as he lived in the Piraeus, he went up forty furlongs to the city every day, in order to hear Socrates, from whom he learnt the art of enduring, and of being indifferent to external circumstances, and so became the original founder of the Cynic school. 6.8). IX. Ancient History Encyclopedia. U. S. A. Virtue is itself sufficient for happiness, since it requires “nothing else except the strength of a Socrates” (D.L. He made it his mission to “deface the currency,” perhaps meaning “to put false coin out of circulation.” That is, he sought to expose the falsity of most conventional standards and beliefs and to call men back to a simple, natural life. He used to say, "That those things were the best for a man to take on a journey, which would float with him if he were shipwrecked." The sixth volume is that in which there is the treatise Truth; another (a disputatious one) concerning Arguing; the Sathon, or on Contradiction, in three parts; and an essay on Dialect. Please support Ancient History Encyclopedia Foundation. This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon this content non-commercially, as long as they credit the author and license their new creations under the identical terms. Xenophon’s treatment of Antisthenes combines well with the details Diogenes Laertius provides of his philosophical position at 6.10-12.
Most of our knowledge of his life comes from Diogenes Laertes' Lives of Eminent Philosophers, and from the dialogues of Xenophon. III. And he used continually to say, "I would rather go mad than feel pleasure." Plato was about the same age as Xenophon. He is said to have regarded his illness and impending death with a calm serenity as simply another part of the life he had so enjoyed. Books
These same values, expressed differently, were taught by both Plato and Aristippus. Though the terms are not yet coined, the distinction is between metaphysics and ethics, and Antisthenes focuses upon the latter only. He chose to live in poverty, and more than one of the surviving anecdotes surrounds the ragged state of his cloak, usually involving those areas where the cloak is torn. Antisthenes was about twenty-five years younger than Socrates.
He it was who appears to have been the cause of Anytus's banishment, and of Meletus's death. Some one was praising luxury in his hearing, and he said, "May the children of my enemies be luxurious." One should consider a just man as of more value than a relation. But Sosicrates, in the third book of his Successions, says that Diodorus, of Aspendos, let his beard grow, and used to carry a stick and a wallet. He used to say too, "That cities were ruined when they were unable to distinguish worthless citizens from virtuous ones.
"The Life of Antisthenes of Athens in Diogenes Laertius." To your most sacred books; you say that virtue Related Content He was asked on one occasion what learning was the most necessary, and he replied, "To unlearn one's bad habits."
The family was viewed as an unnatural institution to be replaced by a natural state in which men and women would be promiscuous and children would be the common concern of all. The wise person knows who are worthy of love, and so does not disdain to love. (2014, August 26). By loosening law and virtue Antisthenes sets the stage for the more radical positions of Diogenes of Sinope and Crates. The third volume contains a treatise on the Good; on Manly Courage; on Law, or Political Constitutions; on Law, or what is Honourable and Just; on Freedom and Slavery; on Good Faith; on a Guardian, or on Persuasion; on Victory, an economical essay. Virtue is tied to deeds and actions, and does not require a great deal of words or learning. The attribution of “first Cynic” to Antisthenes is, on Dudley’s account, merely an invention of the Alexandrian writers of Successions meant to give the Stoic school the proper Socratic pedigree. The subtler approaches of Branham, Goulet-Cazé, and Navia grasp the impossibility of resolving the debate. And whenever he saw a woman beautifully adorned, he would go off to her house, and desire her husband to bring forth his horse and his arms; and then if he had such things, he would give him leave to indulge in luxury, for that he had the means of defending himself; but if he had them not, then he would bid him strip his wife of her ornaments. He used to laugh at Plato as conceited; accordingly, once when there was a fine procession, seeing a horse neighing he said to Plato, "I think you too would be a very frisky horse:" and he said this all the more, because Plato kept continually praising the horse. Is the sole good; for that alone can save And then the young man replied, "On its beauty." The wise person will marry in order to have children with the best women. His asceticism is comparable to that of Socrates, but his animosity toward pleasure and his pride in his poverty resembles better the position of later Cynics. The Life of Antisthenes of Athens in Diogenes Laertius. It is primarily through Xenophon’s dialogues and Diogenes Laertius’ Lives of Eminent Philosophers that certain aspects of Antisthenes’ life and thought are known. Finally, he is much more obviously anti-theoretical than Socrates. At a drinking party, a man once said to him, "Give us a song," and he replied, "Do you play us a tune on the flute." Like Socrates before him, Antisthenes adheres to ethical intellectualism, and like the Stoics who follow the Cynics, he claims that virtue is sufficient for happiness. He was the only student of Antisthenes, and a principal upholder of his teacher’s asceticism and ethical ideologies.
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