Hellenistic Philosophy: Cynicism

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Hellenistic Philosophy Cynicism

• True freedom arises from realizing that if one
  wants nothing, then one will never lack anything.
• Isolation from the society
• Denial of physical comfort
• Autarky, or self-sufficiency, as the goal of life
• Diogenes, the most prominent Cynic
• Alexander if I were not Alexander, I would
  prefer to be Diogenes.

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Diogenes of Sinope
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Diogenes and Alexander
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• Diogenes of Sinope

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Diogenes of Sinope

• Banished from his country, Diogenes spent most of
  his life in Athens, though he died in Corinth. He
  called himself the Dog, and held up the life of
  animals as a model for mankind. His task was the
  recoining of values, and to the civilization of
  Hellenic and Hellenistic world he opposed the
  life of animals and of the barbaric people.

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Hellenistic Philosophy Skepticism

• Nothing could be known for certain
• All ideas and values must be questioned.
• Truth is unknowable
• Autarky as the goal of life.
• Pyrrho of Elis was the founder of Skepticism.

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Hellenistic Philosophy Epicureanism

• How to achieve happiness
• The best way to keep ones wants simple, and thus
  to achieve happiness, was to abstain from sex and
  focus instead on friendship.
• Also not to indulge in excessive desires
• Resist fame, power and wealth
• Freedom from fear fear of the gods, of death,
  and of the hereafter.
• Pleasure is the absence of pain
• Ataraxia, the desireless state, the goal of life
• Epicurus was the founder of Epicureanism

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Epicurus
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Hellenistic Philosophy Stoicism

• The world is governed by the divine logos, or
  reason, or nature.
• Freedom and happiness consist of living in
  harmony with logos
• A resigned and deterministic outlook, but never
  apathetic.
• Emphasis on dedication to work and duty
• Worldwide brotherhood
• Autarky (self-sufficiency) as the goal of life

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Hellenistic Religion Mystery Cults

• The mystery cult of Orpheus
• The mystery cult of Dionysus
• The mystery cult of Isis (and her brother/husband
  Osiris). Isis was the most honored goddess of the
  ancient world.
• The mystery cult of Mithraism

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Mithra Touroctonous
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Mithra