Founded by Antisthenes (c. 445–360 BC), who taught the importance of individual virtue over material luxury, Cynicism was contemptuous of political institutions and organized religion. It rejected refined philosophical speculation and sought instead conversation with the “common man.”
These ideas were developed and taken to an extreme by Diogenes of Sinope (c. 400–325 BC), who is said to have lived in a barrel and begged for scraps. Indeed, the term Cynic derives from the Greek word for dog and referred to the almost feral lifestyle deliberately adopted by Diogenes and his followers. While lacking any detailed philosophical doctrine, Cynicism advocated an indifference to the variable fortunes of the everyday world in favor of the pursuit of individual virtue, a creed that reflected both the sense of political instability at the time and that has continued to influence the more introspective schools of philosophy seeking to retreat from their own political anxieties.
