Antisthenes

Antisthenes (/ænˈtɪsθɪniːz/;[1] Greek: Ἀντισθένης; c.
445 – c. 365 BC) was a Greek philosopher and a pupil of
Socrates.
Antisthenes

Antisthenes first learned rhetoric under
Gorgias

Gorgias before
becoming an ardent disciple of Socrates. He adopted and developed the
ethical side of Socrates' teachings, advocating an ascetic life lived
in accordance with virtue. Later writers regarded him as the founder
of Cynic philosophy.
Contents
1 Life
2 Philosophy
2.1 According to
Diogenes

Diogenes Laertius
2.2 Ethics
2.3 Physics
2.4 Logic
2.5 Philosophy of language
3
Antisthenes

Antisthenes and the Cynics
4 Notes
5 References
6 Further reading
7 External links
Life[edit]
Antisthenes

Antisthenes was born c. 445 BC and was the son of Antisthenes, an
Athenian. His mother was a Thracian.[2] In his youth he fought at
Tanagra (426 BC), and was a disciple first of Gorgias, and then of
Socrates; so eager was he to hear the words of
Socrates

Socrates that he used
to walk daily from Peiraeus to Athens, and persuaded his friends to
accompany him.[3] Eventually he was present at Socrates's death.[4] He
never forgave his master's persecutors, and is said to have been
instrumental in procuring their punishment.[5] He survived the Battle
of Leuctra (371 BC), as he is reported to have compared the victory of
the
Thebans

Thebans to a set of schoolboys beating their master.[6] Although
Eudokia Makrembolitissa

Eudokia Makrembolitissa supposedly tells us that he died at the age of
70,[7] he was apparently still alive in 366 BC,[8] and he must have
been nearer to 80 years old when he died at Athens, c. 365 BC. He is
said to have lectured at the Cynosarges,[9] a gymnasium for the use of
Athenians born of foreign mothers, near the temple of Heracles. Filled
with enthusiasm for the Socratic idea of virtue, he founded a school
of his own in the Cynosarges, where he attracted the poorer classes by
the simplicity of his life and teaching. He wore a cloak and carried a
staff and a wallet, and this costume became the uniform of his
followers.[3]
Diogenes Laërtius

Diogenes Laërtius says that his works filled ten volumes, but of
these, only fragments remain.[3] His favourite style seems to have
been dialogues, some of them being vehement attacks on his
contemporaries, as on
Alcibiades

Alcibiades in the second of his two works
entitled Cyrus, on
Gorgias

Gorgias in his Archelaus and on
Plato

Plato in his
Satho.[10] His style was pure and elegant, and
Theopompus even said
that
Plato

Plato stole from him many of his thoughts.[11] Cicero, after
reading some works by Antisthenes, found his works pleasing and called
him "a man more intelligent than learned".[12] He possessed
considerable powers of wit and sarcasm, and was fond of playing upon
words; saying, for instance, that he would rather fall among crows
(korakes) than flatterers (kolakes), for the one devour the dead, but
the other the living.[13] Two declamations have survived, named Ajax
and Odysseus, which are purely rhetorical.
Antisthenes' nickname was the (Absolute) Dog (ἁπλοκύων, Diog.
Laert.6.13) [14][15][16]
Philosophy[edit]
Marble bust of
Antisthenes

Antisthenes based on the same original (British Museum)
According to
Diogenes

Diogenes Laertius[edit]
In his "Lives of the Eminent Philosophers,"
Diogenes

Diogenes Laertius lists
the following as the favorite themes of Antisthenes: "He would prove
that virtue can be taught; and that nobility belongs to none other
than the virtuous. And he held virtue to be sufficient in itself to
ensure happiness, since it needed nothing else except the strength of
a Socrates. And he maintained that virtue is an affair of deeds and
does not need a store of words or learning; that the wise man is
self-sufficing, for all the goods of others are his; that ill repute
is a good thing and much the same as pain; that the wise man will be
guided in his public acts not by the established laws but by the law
of virtue; that he will also marry in order to have children from
union with the handsomest women; furthermore that he will not disdain
to love, for only the wise man knows who are worthy to be loved".[17]
Ethics[edit]
Antisthenes

Antisthenes was a pupil of Socrates, from whom he imbibed the
fundamental ethical precept that virtue, not pleasure, is the end of
existence. Everything that the wise person does,
Antisthenes

Antisthenes said,
conforms to perfect virtue,[18] and pleasure is not only unnecessary,
but a positive evil. He is reported to have held pain[19] and even
ill-repute (Greek: ἀδοξία)[20] to be blessings, and said that
"I'd rather be mad than feel pleasure".[21] It is, however, probable
that he did not consider all pleasure worthless, but only that which
results from the gratification of sensual or artificial desires, for
we find him praising the pleasures which spring "from out of one's
soul,"[22] and the enjoyments of a wisely chosen friendship.[23] The
supreme good he placed in a life lived according to virtue—virtue
consisting in action, which when obtained is never lost, and exempts
the wise person from error.[24] It is closely connected with reason,
but to enable it to develop itself in action, and to be sufficient for
happiness, it requires the aid of Socratic strength (Greek:
Σωκρατικὴ ἱσχύς).[18]
Physics[edit]
His work on
Natural Philosophy

Natural Philosophy (the Physicus) contained a theory of
the nature of the gods, in which he argued that there were many gods
believed in by the people, but only one natural God.[25] He also said
that
God

God resembles nothing on earth, and therefore could not be
understood from any representation.[26]
Logic[edit]
In logic,
Antisthenes

Antisthenes was troubled by the problem of universals. As a
proper nominalist, he held that definition and predication are either
false or tautological, since we can only say that every individual is
what it is, and can give no more than a description of its qualities,
e. g. that silver is like tin in colour.[27] Thus he disbelieved the
Platonic system of Ideas. "A horse," said Antisthenes, "I can see, but
horsehood I cannot see".[28] Definition is merely a circuitous method
of stating an identity: "a tree is a vegetable growth" is logically no
more than "a tree is a tree".
Philosophy of language[edit]
Antisthenes

Antisthenes apparently distinguished "a general object that can be
aligned with the meaning of the utterance” from “a particular
object of extensional reference." This "suggests that he makes a
distinction between sense and reference."[29] The principal basis of
this claim is a quotation in Alexander of Aphrodisias's “Comments on
Aristotle's 'Topics'” with a three-way distinction:
the semantic medium, δι' ὧν λέγουσι
an object external to the semantic medium, περὶ οὗ
λέγουσιν
the direct indication of a thing, σημαίνειν … τὸ …[30]
Antisthenes

Antisthenes and the Cynics[edit]
Antisthenes, part of a fresco in the National University of Athens
In later times,
Antisthenes

Antisthenes came to be seen as the founder of the
Cynics, but it is by no means certain that he would have recognized
the term. Aristotle, writing a generation later refers several times
to Antisthenes[31] and his followers "the Antistheneans,"[27] but
makes no reference to Cynicism.[32] There are many later tales about
the infamous Cynic
Diogenes of Sinope

Diogenes of Sinope dogging Antisthenes' footsteps
and becoming his faithful hound,[33] but it is by no means certain
that the two men ever met. Some scholars, drawing on the discovery of
defaced coins from Sinope dating from the period 350–340 BC, believe
that
Diogenes

Diogenes only moved to Athens after the death of Antisthenes,[34]
and it has been argued that the stories linking
Antisthenes

Antisthenes to
Diogenes

Diogenes were invented by the
Stoics
_-_BEIC_6353768.jpg/440px-Paolo_Monti_-_Servizio_fotografico_(Napoli,_1969)_-_BEIC_6353768.jpg)
Stoics in a later period in order to
provide a succession linking
Socrates

Socrates to Zeno, via Antisthenes,
Diogenes, and Crates.[35] These tales were important to the
Stoics
_-_BEIC_6353768.jpg/440px-Paolo_Monti_-_Servizio_fotografico_(Napoli,_1969)_-_BEIC_6353768.jpg)
Stoics for
establishing a chain of teaching that ran from
Socrates

Socrates to Zeno.[36]
Others argue that the evidence from the coins is weak, and thus
Diogenes

Diogenes could have moved to Athens well before 340 BC.[37] It is also
possible that
Diogenes

Diogenes visited Athens and
Antisthenes

Antisthenes before his
exile, and returned to Sinope.[34]
Antisthenes

Antisthenes certainly adopted a rigorous ascetic lifestyle,[38] and he
developed many of the principles of Cynic philosophy which became an
inspiration for
Diogenes

Diogenes and later Cynics. It was said that he had
laid the foundations of the city which they afterwards built.[39]
Notes[edit]
^ Jones, Daniel; Roach, Peter James; Hartman, James; Setter, Jane,
eds. (2006). Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary (17th ed.).
Cambridge UP. [page needed]
^ Suda, Antisthenes.; Laërtius 1925, § 1.
^ a b c One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates
text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh,
ed. (1911). "Antisthenes". Encyclopædia Britannica. 2 (11th ed.).
Cambridge University Press. p. 146.
^ Plato, Phaedo, 59b.
^ Laërtius 1925, § 9.
^ Plutarch, Lycurgus, 30.
^ Eudocia, Violarium, 96
^ Diodorus Siculus, xv. 76.4
^ Laërtius 1925, § 13.
^ Athenaeus, v. 220c-e
^ Athenaeus, xi. 508c-d
^ "Κῦρος δ᾽, ε᾽ mihi sic placuit ut cetera Antisthenis,
hominis acuti magis quam eruditi". Cicero, Epistulae ad Atticum, Book
XII, Letter 38, section 2. In English translation: "Books four (δ᾽)
and five (ε᾽) of Cyrus I found as pleasing as the others composed
by Antisthenes, he is a man who is sharp rather than learned".
^ Laërtius 1925, § 4.
^ Prince, Susan (Dept. of Classics, University of Colorado, Boulder).
Review of LE. Navia -
Antisthenes

Antisthenes of Athens: Setting the World Aright.
Retrieved 6 August 2017. — Navia, Luis E.
Antisthenes

Antisthenes of
Athens: Setting the World Aright. Westport: Greenwood Press.
pp. xii, 176. ISBN 0-313-31672-4.
^ Magill, Frank N. (2003). The Ancient World: Dictionary of World
Biography. Routledge. p. 89. ISBN 978-1-135-45740-2.
^ Judge, Harry George; Blake, Robert (1988). World history. Oxford
University Press. p. 104. ISBN 978-0-19-869135-8.
^ Laërtius 1925, § 10.
^ a b Laërtius 1925, § 11.
^ Julian, Oration, 6.181b
^ Laërtius 1925, § 3, 7.
^ Laërtius 1925, § 3.
^ Xenophon, Symposium, iv. 41.
^ Laërtius 1925, § 12.
^ Laërtius 1925, § 11–12, 104–105.
^ Cicero, De Natura Deorum, i. 13.
^ Clement of Alexandria, Stromata, v.
^ a b Aristotle, Metaphysics, 1043b24
^ Simplicius, in Arist. Cat. 208, 28
^ Prince, Susan (2015).
Antisthenes

Antisthenes of Athens: Texts, Translations,
and Commentary. University of Michigan Press. p. 20
^ Prince 2015, pp. 518–522 (Antisthenes' literary remains: t.
153B.1).
^ Aristotle, Metaphysics, 1024b26; Rhetoric, 1407a9; Topics, 104b21;
Politics, 1284a15
^ Long 1996, page 32
^ Laërtius 1925, § 6, 18, 21; Dio Chrysostom, Orations, viii. 1–4;
Aelian, x. 16; Stobaeus, Florilegium, 13.19
^ a b Long 1996, page 45
^ Dudley 1937, pages 2-4
^ Navia,
Diogenes

Diogenes the Cynic, page 100
^ Navia,
Diogenes

Diogenes the Cynic, pages 34, 112-3
^ Xenophon, Symposium, iv. 34–44.
^ Laërtius 1925, § 15.
References[edit]
Brancacci, Aldo. Oikeios logos. La filosofia del linguaggio di
Antistene, Napoli: Bibliopolis, 1990 (fr. tr. Antisthène, Le discours
propre, Paris, Vrin, 2005)
Dudley, Donald R. (1937), A History of Cynicism from
Diogenes

Diogenes to the
6th Century A.D.. Cambridge
Laërtius,
Diogenes

Diogenes (1925). "The Cynics: Antisthenes". Lives of
the Eminent Philosophers. 2:6. Translated by Hicks, Robert Drew (Two
volume ed.). Loeb Classical Library. § 1–19.
Long, A. A. (1996), "The Socratic Tradition: Diogenes, Crates, and
Hellenistic Ethics", in Bracht Branham, R.; Goulet-Caze Marie-Odile,
The Cynics: The Cynic Movement in Antiquity and Its Legacy. University
of California Press. ISBN 0-520-21645-8
Luis E. Navia, (2005),
Diogenes

Diogenes The Cynic: The War Against The World.
Humanity Books. ISBN 1-59102-320-3
Prince, Susan (2015).
Antisthenes

Antisthenes of Athens: Texts, Translations, and
Commentary. University of Michigan Press. p. 20.
Further reading[edit]
Branham, R. Bracht; Cazé, Marie-Odile Goulet, eds. (1996). The
Cynics: The Cynic Movement in Antiquity and Its Legacy. Berkeley:
University of California Press.
Fuentes González, Pedro Pablo (2013). En defensa del encuentro entre
dos Perros, Antístenes y Diógenes: historia de una tensa amistad.
Cuadernos de Filología Clásica: Estudios Griegos e Indoeuropeos. 23.
pp. 225–267 (reprint in: V. Suvák [ed.], Antisthenica Cynica
Socratica, Praha: Oikoumene, 2014, p. 11–71).
Guthrie, William Keith Chambers (1969). The Fifth-Century
Enlightenment. A History of Greek Philosophy. 3. London: Cambridge
University Press.
Navia, Luis E. (1996). Classical Cynicism: A Critical Study. Westport,
CT: Greenwood Press.
Navia, Luis E. (1995). The Philosophy of Cynicism An Annotated
Bibliography. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.
Prince, Susan (2015).
Antisthenes

Antisthenes of Athens: Texts, Translations, and
Commentary. University of Michigan Press.
Rankin, H. D. (1986). Anthisthenes Sokratikos. Amsterdam: A.M.
Hakkert. ISBN 90-256-0896-5.
Rankin, H. D. (1983). Sophists, Socratics, and Cynics. London: Croom
Helm.
Sayre, Farrand (1948). "
Antisthenes

Antisthenes the Socratic". The Classical
Journal. 43: 237–244.
External links[edit]
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Antisthenes.
Wikiquote has quotations related to: Antisthenes
"Antisthenes". Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
Lives & Writings on the Cynics, directory of literary references
to Ancient Cynics
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