Cynicism(犬儒主义) 111.ppt

Cynicism (犬儒主义) Brief Introduction Origin of the Cynic name Philosophy History of Cynicism Cynicism in the Roman World Brief Introduction Cynicism （犬儒主义）(Greek: κυνισμ??), in its original form, refers to the beliefs of an ancient school of Greek philosophers known as the Cynics (Greek: Κυνικο?, Latin: Cynici). Their philosophy was that the purpose of life was to live a life of Virtue in agreement with Nature. This meant rejecting all conventional desires for wealth, power, health, and fame, and by living a simple life free from all possessions. In their opinion, as reasoning creatures, people could gain happiness by rigorous training and by living in a way which was natural for humans. They believed that the world belonged equally to everyone, and that suffering was caused by false judgments of what was valuable and by the worthless customs and conventions which surrounded society. Many of these thoughts were later absorbed into Stoicism(禁欲主义). The first philosopher to outline these themes was Antisthenes（安提西尼/安提斯提尼 ----苏格拉底的学生）, who had been a student of Socrates in the late 5th century BCE. He was followed by Diogenes of Sinope. Diogenes took Cynicism to its logical extremes, and came to be seen as the archetypal Cynic philosopher. He was followed by Crates of Thebes who gave away a large fortune so he could live a life of Cynic poverty in Athens. Cynicism spread with the rise of Imperial Rome in the 1st century. It finally disappeared in the late 5th century. Philosophy Cynicism is one of the most striking of all the Hellenistic （古希腊的）philosophies. Although there was never an official Cynic doctrine, the fundamental principles of Cynicism can be summarised as follows: The goal of life is hapiness which is to live in agreement with Nature. Happiness depends on being self-sufficient, and a master of mental attitude. Self-sufficiency is achieved by living a life of virtue. The road to virtue is to free oneself from any inf