Antstenes

A History of Cynicism. From Diogenes to the 6th Century A.D. Donald R. Dudley.
Introduction:
p. XI: the traditional view of Cynicism as a minor Socratic school, founded by Antisthenes, must be abandoned.
Antisthenes had no direct contact with the Cynics, who never formed a school of philosophy at all, being intolerant
of organization and impatient of theory. Esta visin tradicional ha sido establecida por dos grupos interesados: Los
escritores alejandrinos de Sucesiones de filsofos: queran rastrear todas las genealogas filosficas hasta Scrates; y
los estoicos: deseosos de mostrarse como verdaderos sucesores de Scrates. indeed Cynicism did preserve a
recognizable versin of the Socratic ethics in action.
Captulo I:
p. 1: Antstenes: the validity of the tradition which makes Antisthenes the founder of Cynicism has been
questioned in both ancient and modern times. Comparacin entre este y Digenes: ms divergencias que
semejanzas. Ambos eran ascticos, usaban la oposicin entre ponos y hedone, dolor y placer; ambos usaban a
Heracles como ejemplo de ponos, pero la semejanza no va ms all. Por Aristteles se sabe que Antstenes y sus
pupilos les interesaba los problemas de la lgica neo-eletica.
p. 4: The succession from Socrates via the Cynics to the Stoics seems to have been established by Sotion of
Alexandia (c. 200-170 B.C.).

Classical Cynicism. A Critical Study. Luis Navia, Greenwood Press, 1996.

p.17: Hegel, for instance, began his account of Cynicism with Antisthenes, noting that "the
attitude he adopted comes very near that of rudeness, vulgarity of conduct and shamelessness."
and that these were precisely the traits inherited by later Cynics. Zeller, Ueberweg, Grote,
Gomperz, and Windelband, just to mention a few, supported Hegel's choice for the 'founder' of
Cynicism, recognizing the close relationship between Socrates and Antisthenes, and accepting
thereby the historical nature of the succession ' Socrates-Antisthenes-Diogenes'. In their view, the
basis of Cynicism, the kernel of its teaching, and even the specific style of life of the Cynics, can
be discerned in Antisthenes, despite the scantiness of our information about him.
On the other side of the controversy, we come upon those who view Diogenes as the real
'founder' of Cynicism. Already in the nineteenth century, Chappuis refused to classify
Antisthenes among the Cynics, arguing that Cynicism had failed to keep alive the Socratic
spirit that permeated Antisthenes' philosophy. According to Chappuis, Diogenes
exaggerated and distorted the philosophy of Antisthenes, and dismissed its major components,
specifically those related to logic and physics. A few decades later, Jol would echo Chappuis'
view, insisting that there is no solid foundation for the suppositions that Cynicism can be
traced back to Antisthenes and that Cynic ideas contain genuine elements of Socratic thought.
p.18: More recently, the inclination to disassociate Antisthenes from Cynicism
has been expressed by Dudley, Sayre, and Giannantoni, among others.
Sayre goes even further by arguing that neither Antisthenes nor Diogenes should be associated
with the Cynic movement, for its real originator was Crates. Giannantoni observes that in the
fourth and third centuries B.C. Antisthenes was generally regarded as a Socratic philosopher, not
as a Cynic, and that the linkage between Antisthenes and Diogenes is a late invention of
doxographers and biographers.
by the time of Socrates' death, Antisthenes was a middle-aged man, so his birth can be placed
between 455 and 450 B.C. If, as Seltman suggests on the basis of numismatic evidence,
Diogenes was exiled from Sinope around the year 360 B.C. for his alleged role in the defacement
of currency, he could have then met Antisthenes, a man already very advanced in years. If we
postpone Diogenes' exile ten or twenty years, then the meeting of the two famous Cynics would
turn out to be a fiction. Nothing, however, should force us to disregard the testimony of Diogenes
Laertius (VI, 21) with respect to the master-disciple relationship between Antisthenes and
Diogenes, because there is no contradictory evidence, while there is much supporting
doxographical and anecdotal confirmation.
While historically interesting, this issue is inconsequential with respect to the 'founding' of
Cynicism. For even if Diogenes could have learned philosophy at Antisthenes' feet, he could
have eventually walked away from his teacher with a philosophical outlook altogether
different from his. On the other hand, if we imagine that Diogenes arrived in Athens after
Antisthenes' death, it would still be conceivable that upon learning about Antisthenes' life and
doctrines, and reading his writings, Diogenes could have inherited many of the components of
his philosophy

Cynics. William Desmond. University of California Press. 2008.

p.9: Captulo 1: Antstenes y Scrates, al menos en parte, compartieron su visin (de Digenes) en cuanto a la
rebelin social, la vida natural, e indiferencia a la fortuna.
p.16: Los cnicos llevan estos elementos a extremos mayores. Diferencias entre los cnicos y Scrates: los cnicos
estaban ms seguros de su escepticismo: parecen saber que las ideas y las costumbres tradicionales estn
corrompiendo, que el mundo natural y externo no puede ser entendido y que lo nico que se puede conocer es el
presente. Antstenes: estudiante y amigo de Scrates. El nombre Cynos-arges puede significar perro brillante.