Antisthenes
Virtue is all you need to be happy; wealth, pleasure and reputation are worthless, and hard work is itself a good.
Placement
Pupil of Gorgias, then of Socrates; later regarded as the founder of Cynicism: virtue suffices for happiness.
Key ideas
- Self-sufficiency of virtue
- Toil (ponos) as a good
- Critique of the Forms
Influence
Influenced by 2
Gorgias studied with
studied with later tradition
Known only from later tradition (Diogenes Laertius 6.1), which ties it to the rhetorical style of his dialogues; the report may be an inference from that style. Diogenes Laertius 6.1
Evidence: AI draft
Gorgias › c. 483–376 BCE
Socrates studied with
studied with ✓
Attested by contemporaries: Xenophon shows Antisthenes as a constant companion of Socrates (Memorabilia 3.11.17; Symposium), and Plato names him among those present at his death (Phaedo 59b). Xenophon, Memorabilia 3.11.17; Symposium 4.34–44, 8.4–6; Plato, Phaedo 59b
Socrates › 470–399 BCE
Influenced 1
Diogenes of Sinope
influenced ✓
According to Diogenes Laertius, Diogenes attached himself to Antisthenes in Athens and took up his ethics of self-sufficiency and toil; modern scholars doubt that they met. Diogenes Laertius VI.21; D. R. Dudley, A History of Cynicism (1937); IEP “Diogenes of Sinope”
Diogenes of Sinope › c. 412–323 BCE
Criticism
Criticizes 1
Plato
criticised
Antisthenes rejected Plato’s Forms – he saw a horse but not ‘horseness’ – and mocked Plato in a dialogue called Sathon. Simplicius, In Categorias 208.28–32; Diogenes Laertius 3.35
Evidence: AI draft
Plato › 428–348 BCE
Position
Antisthenes took from Socrates the conviction that virtue alone suffices for happiness, needing nothing but the strength of a Socrates. Virtue can be taught and, once acquired, cannot be lost; pleasure, wealth and reputation count for little, while toil (ponos) trains the soul – Heracles was his model. He held that education begins with the examination of names, and he attacked Plato’s theory of Forms: in a well-known anecdote, he could see a horse but not “horseness”. Later tradition made him the founder of Cynicism and teacher of Diogenes, which modern scholars doubt. Through the Cynics his ideal of self-sufficiency reached the Stoics.
Life & context
Antisthenes was born in Athens around 445 BCE; his mother is said to have been Thracian. He first studied rhetoric with Gorgias, then became one of the most devoted followers of Socrates and, according to Plato, was present at his death. Afterwards he taught at the Cynosarges gymnasium. Ancient lists record a great many writings, but only two short speeches survive.
Main works
- Ajax and Odysseus (two short speeches, early 4th century BCE)
- Sathon (lost polemic against Plato, early 4th century BCE)
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