Plato's Podcasts by Mark Vernon

Author:Mark Vernon
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Oneworld Publications

… there is a devil haunts thee in the likeness of an old fat man; a tun of man is thy companion … Wherein is he [Falstaff] good, but to taste sack and drink it? wherein neat and cleanly, but to carve a capon and eat it? wherein cunning, but in craft? wherein crafty, but in villany? wherein villanous, but in all things? wherein worthy, but in nothing?

Wherein worthy, but in nothing? That is the charge against the hedonist.

Another point added to the case that Aristippus was beyond the pale. Like other philosophers of the time, Cyrenaics regarded themselves as citizens of the world. They travelled around the Mediterranean as many others did. However, they took that freedom to imply that they did not belong to any one state. This was, in a sense, a reaction to the times. Whilst citizenship had been closely tied to participating in a particular city-state – in its voting or juridical procedures – the city-states of the Mediterranean had fallen into a parlous state, and after Alexander they ceased to exist. Cyrenaics might have said they were wising up to the times. Globalising forces uproot individuals and the wise move is to embrace the upheaval and enjoy the ride.

Most, though, regarded this attitude as an abnegation of responsibility. It was leaching off the glories of Greece and putting nothing back. As the scholar Wilhelm Windeband described it, theirs was the ‘philosophy of the parasites’. They might be rather like the fat cats of today, who enjoy all the benefits that nation-states provide, but themselves live on offshore retreats where they don’t have to pay any taxes.

For all of the objections, Aristippus found a following and the Cyrenaic school lasted for a while. Hedonism will always have an appeal. However, the successors to Aristippus soon manifested its internal contradictions too. Theodorus, the first, abandoned Aristippus’ dedication to the pleasure of the moment, in favour of having a cheerful frame of mind. He thought that was a better philosophy. Until Anniceris, another disciple, shifted it again. He argued that spiritual pleasures, such as friendship, were superior to carnal enjoyments, such as sex.

Hedonism can actually lead to a kind of pessimism, and not of the constructive sort of the Stoics. The logic here is that if you cannot decide which pleasure to enjoy, then maybe you should aim a little lower, and simply decide on the best strategies to avoid pain: if you can’t identify the good, then at least avoid the bad.

Anniceris’ fellow student, Hegesias, took this route. He concluded that there was only one real way to ensure a painless life and that was to dedicate yourself to complete inaction. Further, there was only one way to be resolved to inaction, and that was to kill yourself. He wrote a book with the cheery title Death by Starvation. Amongst the students of Alexandria, where it was published, it became a must-read. Several apparently took his advice quite literally, which led the pharaoh to ban it.

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