History of Philosophy Without Any Gaps HoP 054 - Instant Gratification - the Cyrenaics
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Nov 13, 2011 AI Snips
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Aristippus The Elder’s Feisty Tales
- Aristippus the elder appears in Xenophon as a pleasure-seeking companion of Socrates and stars in many witty stories.
- Tales show him at feasts and brothels, claiming pleasure as his business while practicing a limited self-control.
Present Pleasure As The Only Good
- Aristippus the younger makes present sensory pleasure the sole ethical good and rejects life-wide happiness as the goal.
- He treats only what you experience now as relevant, excluding memory, anticipation, and the broader notion of eudaimonia.
Pleasure As Smooth Motion
- Aristippus defines pleasure as a 'smooth motion' and pain as a 'rough motion', using nautical metaphors to illustrate experience.
- This physicalist picture ties ethical value directly to immediate bodily states rather than to higher cognitive goods.