After Plato and Aristotle, the concerns of the philosophers moved further and further from metaphysics, epistemology, and anything resembling modern science, to the issue that had always concerned the ancient Greeks the most -- ethics. What is it to be virtuous, to have character, to live the good life, to have “arete” (nobility)?

Antisthenes (445-365) was the son of an Athenian citizen and a Thracian slave girl. After starting his own school, he came to recognize that Socrates was wiser than he. He went over, students and all, to learn from the master.

Antisthenes is the founder of cynicism. Cynic comes from the Greek word for dog, originally because Antisthenes taught at the Cynosarges ("White Dog") gymnasium, which had been set up for the poor of Athens.

Cynicism involves living the simple life in order that the soul can be set free. It is a “back to nature” type of philosophy, ala St. Francis of Assisi or the Hindu ascetics. By eliminating one’s needs and possessions, one can better concentrate on the life of philosophy.

Cynicism makes virtue the only good, the only true happiness. You can’t control the world and life’s ups and downs, so control yourself! Inhibit your desires! become independent of the world! “I would rather go mad than feel pleasure!” said Antisthenes. Rejecting civilization, cynics tended to withdraw from society, even to live in the desert. In this, they may have influenced early Jewish and Christian monastics.

Cynicism wasn’t entirely negative (from today’s values perspective): They strongly encouraged individualism, believed that all men were brothers, were against war and slavery, and believed in free speech. They also believed in the legitimacy of suicide and, oddly, free love!

The most famous of the cynics was Diogenes (412-323), a student of Antisthenes. He saw himself as a citizen of the world (a “cosmopolitan”), yet for a time lived in a discarded clay jar. There is a famous story that has Alexander the Great finding him sleeping in the sun and announcing “I am Alexander the great king!” Diogenes replied “I am Diogenes the dog!” Alexander asked if there was anything he could do for him. Diogenes just asked him to move out of the sun.