Antisthenes

440 BC - 360

a student of Socrates, Antisthenes' philosophy of cynicism exerted an important influence on Diogenes

ANTISTHENES (c. 444?365 B.C.), the founder of the Cynic fool of philosophy, was born at Athens of a Thracian mother, which may account for the extreme boldness of his attack conventional thought. In his youth he studied rhetoric under Gorgias, perhaps also under Hippias and Prodicus. It has been suggested that he was originally in good circumstances,... more »