Lecture 9 - Cynics

I missed a few lectures prior to this one.

Cynicism

Greek-origin philosophical system which lacked any institutional equivalent of Plato's academy, but generally concentrated on three issues:

1. Nature: live in accord with human nature by realizing "people are reasoning animals", rejecting arbitrary conventions of society.
2. Virtue: achieved by following one's natural sense of reason, living simply and shamelessly free from social constraints.
   • Only goal of human life, only thing needed for inner happiness.
   • Wealth, status, honor is pointless/irrelevant.
3. Freedom: self-sufficient, reject wealth, pomp and other conventional values. Being above social conventions / unconstrained by interactions with society.

Diogenes the Cynics

One of the more famous cynics.

• Born in Sinope (412-323 BC)
• Eventually landed in Athens and became student of Antisthenes (pupil of Socrates), from whom he learned quite a lot
• Scion of a wealthy family, but embraced poverty and simplicity.
  • Spurned all social conventions, great and small, not caring that he offended people.
  • Some liked his eccentricity, others of course did not.

Diogenes did not like Plato (and the feeling was quite mutual).

"Looking for a man" while strolling through the agora.

Later captured by pirates, enslaved in Corinth. While there, he taught Crates of Thebes, who later taught Zeno of Citium (founder of Stoicism).

Stoicism

Stoicism was a branch of philosophy which later emerged from cynicism.

• Focused on the importance of living in accordance with nature.
• Common humanity of everyone regardless of nationality, sex or condition of servitude (slaves just as human as monarchs).
  • Did not advocate abolition of slavery, but did urge humane treatment as fellow humans.
• Developed theories of natural law.
• Cicero articulated his own views on natural law which greatly influenced later thinkers (U.S. Declaration of Independence).

Virtue

• Virtue alone is good, whereas vice is the only evil.
• Both necessary and sufficient to make one happy.
  • The pursuit of which is sufficient.
• Differs from other philosophical schools, such as Platonists and Aristotelians who considered virtue to be the chief, but not exclusive, good (ditto vice).
• To the Stoics: virtue is all-or-nothing. No half-assing. Either perfectly virtuous or viceful.

Virtue and vice is within one's own agency, and we have the ability to enact change within it.

However, things exist external to virtue and vice.

• Wealth, health, poverty, illness are morally indifferent / external.
• We can't affect them. Of course, wealth/heath generally positive, illness/poverty generally negative.

Stoics: virtue or vice is within one's own control whereas everything else is not, so for the Stoics good and evil is solely concerned with what is in our control / agency.

Freedom

• Stoics appreciated political freedom, put emphasis on spiritual freedom (i.e. ruling one's passions rather than vice versa = freedom from passions).
• Epictetus (50-135 CE), who was born into slavery, expounded the doctrine that slavery to one's passions was a worse evil than bodily slavery.
  • Agency and ability to change.

Epictetus

c. 50-135 CE

• Greek man born into slavery in Hierapolis
• Name means "acquired"
• Ended up in Rome, sold to Epaphroitus (freedman, secretary, and suicide-assistant of Nero)
• Allowed to study philosophy under Musonius Rufus, noted Roman Stoic
• Freed sometime after Nero's death (~68 CE)
• Taught philosophy in Rome until c. 93 CE, until Emperor Domitian banished all philosophers
  • Why???
• Moved to Nicopolis, where he founded a school of philosophy and taught (among others) Arrian, who wrote down teachings.

Discourse on Freedom

• Unique text on freedom from the Roman period
• One of the few writers with a surviving work who was himself also a slave at some point (first ~20 years of life)

Questions:

Who are the free and who are the slaves?

• The wicked? No - sorrows, envy, etc.
• Animals? Perhaps - but do they enjoy being cooped up?
• Servitium amoris (slavery of love) - no, bound to the person one loves

Who is a slave?

• If you are compelled to do something, you are a slave.
• To free oneself from compulsion, death.

Servile Wars

The Servile Wars were a series of three large slave revolts.

• The first two localized to Sicily (135-132, 104-100 BCE)
  • Both involved slave leaders who declared themselves kings

The largest of the three, however, was led by Spartacus.

Spartacus

• Thracian man who served as a soldier alongside the Romans, before he was enslaved by aforementioned Romans.
• No eyewitness or contemporary accounts of him exist; best sources, Appian and Plutarch's Life of Crassus, written centuries after events.
  • Thus, we know effectively nothing of him apart from his participation in the Third Servile War.
• Spartacus and a bunch of enslaved gladiators escaped to the countryside and sought to recover their freedom.
  • What type of freedom? From slavery? Back to homeland?

• Either instigator or later chosen leader after revolt.
• Soon after escaping, band swells (slaves, fugitives, even free farmers joined up), army swelled to 100,000+ strong, moving up and down the Italian countryside.
  • Managed to defeat several Roman armies.
• Romans initially dismissive of revolt, then frantically attempted to stop revolt after realizing how successful it was.
• Crassus himself got command of a Roman army, defeated Spartacus's army (with Pompey coming in near the end to 'help out')
• Spartacus and all his soldiers were crucified.
  • Final major slave revolt in Roman history.