Cynicism, in its original form, refers to the beliefs of
ancient school of Greek philosophers known as the Cynics. Their philosophy was
that the purpose of life was to live a life of Virtue in agreement with Nature.
This meant rejecting all conventional desires for wealth, power, sex, and fame,
and by living a simple life free from all possessions. As reasoning creatures,
people could gain happiness by rigorous training and by living in a way which
was natural for humans. The first philosopher to outline these themes was
Antisthenes, who had been a pupil of Socrates in the late 5th century BCE. He
was followed by Diogenes of Sinope, who lived in a tub on the streets of
Athens. Diogenes took Cynicism to its logical extremes, and came to be seen as
the archetypal Cynic philosopher. He was followed by Crates of Thebes who gave
away a large fortune so he could live a life of Cynic poverty in Athens.
Cynicism spread with the rise of Imperial Rome in the 1st century, and Cynics
could be found begging and preaching throughout the cities of the Empire. It
finally disappeared in the late 5th century, although some have claimed that
early Christianity adopted many of its ascetic and rhetorical ideas.
