Cynicism

In Our Time

BBC

History

4.6 • 9.2K Ratings

🗓️ 20 October 2005

⏱️ 28 minutes

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Summary

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Cynics, the performance artists of philosophy. Eating live octopus with fresh lupins, performing intimate acts in public places and shouting at passers by from inside a barrel is behaviour not normally associated with philosophy. But the Cynics were different. They were determined to expose the meaninglessness of civilised life by action as well as by word. They slept rough, ate simply and gave their lectures in the market place. Perhaps surprisingly, their ideas and attitudes were immensely popular in the ancient world. But how coherent was cynicism as a philosophy? What was its influence on literature and politics and is there any truth to the contention that Jesus himself was influenced by the Cynics? With Angie Hobbs, Lecturer in Philosophy, University of Warwick; Miriam Griffin, Fellow of Somerville College, Oxford; John Moles, Professor of Latin, University of Newcastle.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Thanks for downloading the in-artime podcast. For more details about in-artime and for our terms of use
0:05.4	Please go to bbc.co.uk forward slash radio for I hope you enjoy the program
0:11.6	Hello eating fresh loop-ins performing intimate acts in public places and shouting at passes by from inside a barrel is behavior
0:18.6	Not normally associated with philosophy, but the cynics were different
0:22.8	They were philosophers determined to expose the meaningless of civilized life by action as well as by word
0:28.6	They slept rough ignored personal hygiene ate simply and gave their lectures in the marketplace
0:34.2	Perhaps surprisingly their ideas and attitudes were immensely popular in the ancient world
0:39.5	But how coherent was cynicism as a philosophy?
0:42.9	What was its influence on literature and politics?
0:45.5	And is there any truth to the contention that Jesus Christ himself was influenced by the cynics with me to discuss the
0:51.9	Philosophy of cynicism is Angie Hobbs, lecturer in philosophy at the University of Warwick, John Mose, professor of Latin at the University of Newcastle and
1:00.5	Miriam Griffin fellow in ancient history at Somerville College, Oxford, Angie Hobbs
1:06.0	cynicism in common with so much philosophy from the ancient world has its roots in Socrates
1:11.0	Can you explain which how the hersocratic ideas made their way into cynicism?
1:16.2	Yes, well for Socrates the good life is a life of self-sufficiency and this is possible because virtue is sufficient for happiness and so
1:27.1	Happiness and virtue are within your power
1:29.6	So such things as your social status your sex whether your freeborn or slave whether your Greek or non-Greek are irrelevant
1:38.2	Your external contingencies are by the by your happiness is up to you
1:44.1	And how did that key and when did key and we don't know about the early cynics being contemporaneous with Socrates?
1:50.2	Well, certainly the first inspiration for the cynics is thought to have been one of Socrates associates called
1:57.3	Antistones and Antistones again, he promotes these ideals of self-sufficiency and freedom
2:04.5	Through rigorous mental and physical training once you get to diogenes
	...

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