We began class discussing Theophrastus and Strato, who were successors of Aristotle. Theophrastus was a mechanist, and believed that there were no abstract principles separate from nature. He did not believe in any type of major purpose in life. He did not believe in any kind of abstract soul or rational thought. He believed that our thoughts are material, and that external goods are necessary for happiness. One had to be comfortable to be happy, and could not be happy when in pain. Theophrastus thought it was very important to be a citizen o f the world, as it was very important that there was equality among people.
Like Theophrastus, Strato was also a mechanist. He was a physicist. He did not believe in an abstract soul, but believed that the soul was simply a part of the body, that it was the same things as sensation. He believed that thought is material and thinking is merely a physical sense. He did not believe in the afterlife. When you die, you die.
We continued class, discussing the Cynics. We looked at a quote by Nietzsche that pretty much summed up Cynicism: “Cynicism is the only form in which common souls come close to honesty; and the higher man must prick up his ears at every Cynicism, whether course or refined and congratulate himself whenever a buffoon without shame or a scientific satyr speaks out in his presence.”
A central aspect of Cynicism is that your way of life is more important than any philosophical theory that you discuss. Cynicism is about actions, not discourse. The Cynics believed one should live life in accordance with nature, and that Enkratia, or self-rule was extremely important. The Cynic is the most wise and free type of person, and that getting bogged down in ridiculous false value judgments prevented one from living the good life.
Antisthenes was one of the first to adopt the Cynic behavior. He defined a statement of assertion as that which sets forth what a thing is, and believed that there is only one account of a thing. He claimed that the only life worth living is the good life, and if you’re not going to live the good life you might as well be dead. He believed that one should not associate one’s reputation with who they were, and that it was good to have a bad reputation because this showed that you did not make this association. He believed that city laws were not in accordance with our highest rationality, and that it is better to follow one’s own virtues. Antisthenes believed that getting rid of the knowledge instilled in us, or “unlearning” is the most valuable type of learning. Antisthenes once criticized a friend who was complaining that he could not read his notes, and told him that he should have put the material in his brain instead of merely writing it down.
The Cynics disliked Plato because they believed that his dialogues were superfluous and unnecessary, and also that he was a glutton and a show-off. In one instance Plato had been offered some figs, and took way more than he should have taken, and another time when Diogenes asked Plato for just a few olives, Plato sent him an entire jar.
The Cynics were naturalists, and believed that names are naturally related to the things they describe. Cynics, especially Diogenes believed that in order to be called a certain name, a thing must deserve to be called that name. Diogenes was known to have walked around with a lamp in the middle of the day, saying, “I am looking for a man,” as he believed that there were no real men in Athens, because nobody there was worthy of being called a man.
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