It is, for example, difficult to understand precisely the sense in which the Cynics understood the concept of reason except by literally looking at what they did. Cynic writings are mostly nonextant, and we suspect that even if they were available they would not be helpful because the Cynics expressed their convictions not so much through writings, but through actions and speech. Although certain principles can be identified in it, the scarcity of primary sources makes this task difficult. It was against such a condition that the Cynics declared war.Ĭynicism can be understood, accordingly, as a philosophy of revolt. Diogenes often said that the human world is an enormous madhouse in which every sort of madness is found everywhere: cruelty, greed, deception, mendacity, brutality, uncontrolled hedonism, and the rest of the all-too-common diseases that afflict humanity and have become endemic in the form of things such as religion, patriotism, tradition, and other manifestations of irrationality. In abandoning this capacity, people forsake their true nature.
The Cynics persisted in the conviction that most people live as if immersed in a cloud of smoke ( typhos) that prevents them from seeing clearly and does not allow them to use that which distinguishes humans from animals-namely, the capacity to reason. We can define Cynicism as a practical philosophy that exhibits a permeating and inflexible commitment to saying no to the values, norms, beliefs, practices, traditions, and all other forms of living which, in the light of what the Cynics called clarity of mind, appear to be senseless or misguided. The history of Cynicism begins in the early fourth century B.C.E. What allows us to distinguish them from other philosophers is a certain attitude toward their cultural and political world, as well as a distinctive way of expressing their rejection of that world. For this reason, the classical Cynics constitute an assortment of different types of individuals (men and women) who exhibited diverse styles of life and held a variety of beliefs. Accordingly, it had neither a founder nor an identifiable place of origin nor a set of principles or beliefs. It must be borne in mind, however, that Cynicism was not a school of philosophy comparable to Plato's Academy or Zeno's Stoa. 445–365 B.C.E.), an associate of Socrates, and others opt for Diogenes, a disciple of Antisthenes, and see Diogenes as the "founder" of Cynicism. The question as to who the first dog philosopher was has been often raised. Beginning with Diogenes, however, the Cynics accepted the uncomplimentary appellation with enthusiasm and were happy to call themselves "the dog philosophers." Likewise, when Lucian speaks of the crowds of Cynics found in every Roman town in the second century C.E., he calls them "the Army of the Dog." The association between the Cynics and dogs seems to have originated not among the Cynics themselves, but among outsiders who discerned in them behavioral traits reminiscent of dog behavior. 320 B.C.E.), he calls him "the Dog" because that is how Diogenes was known. The word cynic is etymologically related to the Greek word kynikos, which literally means "like a dog." When Aristotle, for instance, refers to Diogenes of Sinope (d. As a result of a curious perversion of language, the meaning of modern cynicism appears to have been transformed into the opposite of what it once meant, despite undeniable external similarities between the old and the new cynics.
A review of the history of Cynicism reveals that its meaning is significantly different from what modern cynicism has come to mean, and it is not unreasonable to agree with what Bertrand Russell said-namely, that modern cynics have hardly anything in common with the classical Cynics. Cynicism, however, has an ancient meaning, the roots of which are traceable to the classical Greeks, specifically to Socrates and his associates in the late fifth century B.C.E.
0 kommentar(er)
