#antisthenes

[callmesinner]

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[inspofromancientworld]

History of Philosophy: Western Philosophy II

By Cristian Bortes from Cluj-Napoca, Romania - British Museum, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=32590776

Around the 5th century BCE, the center of ancient Greek philosophy moved from Ionia to Athens, especially with the rise of Socrates, who lived from about 470-399 BCE. Athens was a center of learning, with people traveling across Greece to teach and learn there about astronomy, geometry, and cosmology. Marcus Tullius Cicero, a Roman scholar and writer, said that Socrates was 'the first who brought philosophy down from the heavens, placed it in cities, introduced it to families, and obligated it to examine into life and morals, and good and evil', bringing philosophy to politics and ethics.

Because Socrates 'is said to have pursued…probing question-and-answer style examinations on a number of topics' but never 'reached a firm conclusion', something known as aporetically, representing a conundrum or 'state of puzzlement'. Socrates did not write but his conversations were recorded by his students Plato, who lived from about 428-348 BCE, and Xenophon, who lived from about 430-354 BCE, and often remarked on his own 'ignorance', such as 'claiming that he does not know what courage is'. According to Plato, Socrates distinguished 'himself from the common run of man kind by the fact that, while they known nothing noble and good, they do know not that they do not know, whereas Socrates knows and acknowledges that he knows nothing noble and good'.

A conservative reaction against Pericles, who supported 'new learning', made it a 'crime to investigate the thing above the heavens or below the earth, subjects considered to be impious', though Socrates was the only one to have been charged under the law, though many others fled Athens. In 399 BCE, he was convicted and sentenced to death. Plato recorded that Socrates defended himself by claiming 'that it is the envy he aroused on account of his being a philosopher that will convict him'. Socrates inspired a series of schools of thought that still have influence on modern thought, with his intellectual family flowing through Plato to Aristotle, to Antisthenes, who thought Plato distorted Socrates and founded Cynicism, and then through into Stoicism.

Platonism follows from Plato's teachings of Socrates, with 36 dialogues and 13 letters ascribed to him, though only 24 of the dialogues are universally accepted now, with most scholars accepting 28 dialogues and 2 letters, with another 9 dialogues ascribed to Plato, but 'were considered spurious even in antiquity'. Xenophon's writings shared a lot of similarities with Plato's, especially as they both wrote many of Socrates' dialogues, but Plato also used Socrates as a 'mouthpiece', especially with 'Socrates' reputation for irony [a juxtaposition of what, on the surface, appears to be the case with what is actually or expected to be the case], his caginess regarding his own opinions in the dialogues, and his occasional absence from or minor role in the conversation serve to conceal Plato's doctrines' much of which can be found in his books the Republic, the Laws, and the Statesman. The first proposes that for there to be justice, cities must be ruled by a philosopher king; that 'those responsible for enforcing the laws are compelled to hold their women, children, and property in common; and the individual is taught to pursue the common good through noble lies ['the myth or lie that is prevalent in a society, and that either emerges on its own or is propagated by an elite in order to maintain social order or for the "greater good"']', which he states is probably impossible. In combination with the Statesman and the Laws, he questions the limits of politics, what order, given the constraints in politics, would be best. He also touched on the metaphysical, with one he is especially connected with is the 'theory of forms' which 'holds that non-material abstract (but substantial) forms (or ideas), and not the material world of change known to us through our physical senses, possess the highest and most fundamental kind of reality', while arguing for the 'immortality of the soul, and he believed specifically in reincarnation', regarding the soul as a 'non-material abstract form'.

Aristotle, who lived from 384-322 BCE, studied at Plato's Academy. He was in Athens for about 20 years before leaving to study botany and zoology and eventually to tutor Alexander the Great, then returned about a decade later to establish his own school of philosophy known as the Lyceum. Twenty-nine of his treatises are known to have survived through today that cover a wide variety of topics. Many of his writings disagree with Plato's writings, referring to the theory of forms as 'empty words and poetic metaphors', giving more weight to 'empirical observation and practical concerns'. While he wasn't particularly popular in later early Greek philosophy, 'later peripatetic [students in his school] commentators popularized his work, which eventually contributed heavily to Islamic, Jewish, and medieval Christian philosophy'. He disagreed with utopian theories that Plato used and felt that it was more important to 'rely on the understood and observed behaviors of people in reality to formulate his theories', holding the 'moral assumption that life is valuable, the philosopher makes a point that scarce resources ought to be responsibly allocated to reduce poverty and death' and that the acquisition of wealth for wealth's sake was an 'unnatural' trade. He felt that people should not just be given the 'direction to make the right choices but wanted each person equipped with the tools to perform this moral duty' and '[p]roperty should be in a certain sense common, but as a general rule, private; for, when everyone has a distinct interest, men will not complain of one another, and they will make more progress because everyone will be attending to his own business…And further, there is the greatest pleasure in doing a kindness or service to friends or guests or companions, which can only be rendered when a man has private property. These advantages are lost by excessive unification of the state'.

Cynicism, founded by Antisthenes, who lived from about 446-366 BCE and a student of Socrates, and Diogenes, who lived from about 413-324 BCE and was influenced by Socrates and Antisthenes, holds that 'people are reasoning animals, and the purpose of life and the way to gain happiness is to achieve virtue, in agreement with nature, following one's natural sense of reason by living simply [reducing the number of possessions, relying less on technology, and spending less money] and shamelessly free from social constraints. Cynic comes from the Ancient Greek κυνικός kynikos, which means dog-like, possibly after the Cynosarges gymnasium in Athens, where Antisthenes first taught, or possibly because the word was 'thrown at the first Cynics as an insult for their shameless rejection of conventional manners and their decision to live on the streets', with perhaps best known 'dog' being Diogenes, which he apparently enjoyed being called, saying 'other dogs bite their enemies, I bite my friends to save them'. They tended to wear old cloaks to allude to Socrates and carry a staff, alluding to the club of Heracles, which became so tied to them that 'ancient writers accosted those who thought that donning the Cynic garb would make them suited to the philosophy'. Carrying a staff also a reflection back to the times when carrying a weapon, first a sword, then a spear, then a staff, was common and expected, but was considered foolish or possibly 'slightly taboo'.

[jimbr549]

[bennettmarko]

It is a royal thing to be ill-spoken of for good deeds.

- Antisthenes

[the-dead-lover]

There are only two people who can tell you the truth about yourself - an enemy who has lost his temper and a friend who loves you dearly.

-Antisthenes

[aksiris]

Socrates and his disciples

[felsefebilim]

Antisthenes ve Unutulmayan Sözleri

Savaşta gösterdiği başarılar sayesinde Sokrates’ten yiğitliği ve cesareti için övgüler alan Antisthenes, Gorgias’ın öğrencilerinden birisidir. Sonrasında Sokrates’in öğrencisi olduğu da söylenir.

Antisthenes önemli teoriler ortaya atmamıştır fakat sözü ilk tanımlayan ve özellikle sofistlik hakkında yazıları bulunan bir filozoftur. Söz tanımı şu şekildedir. Söz, olmuş ya da olmakta olanı açıklayan şeydir der. 

Dönemin çok tanınmayan filozoflarından olan Antisthenes, gerek Sokrates’tena aldığı eğitim gerekse ünlü sofist hocası Gorgias’tan öğrendikleriyle birçok şeyle alay eden, nükteli ve özlü sözleriyle bilinen bir kişiydi. Hatta onun için insanların yüreğini ağzıyla değil sözleriyle ısırıyor demişlerdir. 

Şimdi Anisthenes’in sözlerinden bazılarını sizle paylaşmak istiyorum.

‘Haz almaktansa, çıldırayım daha iyi...’

‘En zorunlu bilgi, öğrendiğini unutmamaktır.’

‘Güzel bir kadınla evlenirsen, başkalarıyla ortak olursun; çirkin bir kadınla evlenirsen cezanı bulursun.’

‘Dalkavukların içine düşmektense, akbabaların içine düşmek daha iyi. Çünkü biri ölüler yer öbürü ise dirileri...’

‘İnsan düşmanlarını dikkate almalı çünkü kusurlarını ilk fark eden onlardır.’

‘Ölümün geldiğini duymayız. O halde sorarım size geldiğini duymadığımız bir şey nasıl kötü olabilir?’

[elizabethanism]

“When asked what benefit he derived from philosophy, he replied “to be able to converse with myself.”

ἐρωτηθεὶς τί αὐτῷ περιγέγονεν ἐκ φιλοσοφίας, ἔφη, “τὸ δύνασθαι ἑαυτῷ ὁμιλεῖν.”

Antisthenes