Problematic Nature of Sources � Cynicism.

Cynicism; being a minor Socratic school of philosophy is not, currently considered an important school of philosophy. There is a severe lack of primary sources available for the study of Cynicism, and those that are available must be questioned. Diogenes Laertius, who is not known for his reliability, provides one of the major primary sources on Cynicism. Also it seems that the Cynics played the role of �out casts� in ancient Greek society, therefore many of the other resources available upon the Cynics were quite often derogatory or were made by people who were not Cynics themselves. This can be a cause of confusion, as those who were not practicing Cynics themselves often misinterpreted the meaning of certain words etc. For example: the following quotes may, at first seem contradictory, but upon further consideration become clear.

Source: Diogenes of Sinope,- A study of Greek Cynicism. BY Farrand Sayre, B.S., A.M., PH.D. Baltimore J.H Furst Company 1938. America

Quote 1:
�I came quickly upon the road to happiness. Arriving at this place where Happiness resided, I said, �I remain, O Happiness, of account of you and drink water and eat water cress and sleep on the ground�. She answered me and said, �I will make hardships more pleasant for you than the benefits to be obtained from wealth, which men prefer and ask of me, not perceiving that they are entrusting themselves to a tyrant.� When I heard Happiness say that eating and drinking these things was not training but pleasure, it impelled me to this way of living.� (37th Letter of Diogenes).

Quote 2:
�To hear them, you would say they are war with pleasure and Epicurus their bitterest foe; yet nothing do they do but for pleasure�s sake� [Lucian] (The Runaways 19)

At first, comparison of these two quotes seems very confusing, but after consideration the meaning becomes clear. The Cynics renounced social and material pleasures however, they did not renounce the pleasures of nature, and this is what both quotes are referring to. Upon renouncing all social and material pleasures, the Cynics found far greater pleasure in the things that nature bestowed upon them.

Being able to find printed resources on Cynicism is also difficult. Sections concerning Cynicism in philosophy encyclopaedias etc are in general very short or not present at all. Upon searching the three major libraries in my city, I was only able to locate one book concerning Cynicism.

Despite the lack of printed resources concerning cynicism there is a larger amount of resources present concerning Cynicism on the internet. I was able to obtain information on the Cynics from a wide variety of web pages on the net. However, when using information from the internet the reliability of the information must be questioned. Despite this, a large amount of the information that I obtained on the internet concerning Cynicism was from online encyclopaedias and �organisations�, whose credibility is fairly reliable. However, where possible I endeavoured to check much of the information that I got from more unreliable resources against reliable resources for its validity.

Words � Natalie Gardner
Design / Brushes � PixelScripts
Photo � Unknown, from gettyimages.com