1. The Problem.
The problem of the origins or
sources of Cynicism has attracted the
interest of
scholars since Ferdinand Dümmler published his dis-
sertation
Antisthenica in 1882. Dümmler thought he
had found a whole series of polemical allusions to
Antisthenes in Plato's
works. Dümmler's thesis was
soon pushed to extremes by other
scholars, who gave
Antisthenes a central position in Greek philosophy.
Antisthenes' role as the founder of a philosophical
school was not called
in question. Diogenes of Sinope
was regarded as his immediate pupil in
accordance
with ancient tradition. Cynicism was regarded as an
ethical
and mainly partical philosophical movement
with later additions of certain
abstruse traits but still
essentially a bearer of a Socratic tradition.
Contrary to this conception of the problem we find
another radically
different view. In this view Antis-
thenes
was not an independent thinker or writer of
any particular importance and
had nothing at all to
do with Cynicism. The linking together of
Antisthenes
and Diogenes is then explained as a Stoic attempt to
derive the Stoa directly from Socrates. Cynicism is not
a philosophy, it is
an asocial, amoral, and anti-intellec-
tual way of living. Without Diogenes there would be
no Cynics. He is
the creator of the true Cynic type
with all its burlesque, asocial and
anticultural features,
described in an abundance of Cynic anecdotes.
The
picture of Diogenes as a type, conveyed by the anec-
dotes, is true in its main features, even though the
details
are invented.
The problem of Cynicism is essentially a problem
concerning the sources. No
original writings, with few
exceptions, have survived. Our knowledge of
Cynicism
rests largely on quotations from late authors, on a rich
profusion of anecdotes, and on late spurious letters.
The interpretation of
isolated sentences, torn from their
context, and of
résumés must therefore be conjectural
and need to be
viewed from the standpoint of the
history of the ideas associated with the
so-called
Cynics. The widely differing positions taken up in this
field of research are due to the conditions suggested
here. The account of
a few central themes in Cynicism
that will be given here rests solely on
doxographical
material or such material as can be related to the
doxographies.
