Antisthenes said he would rather go mad than experience pleasure. That is clearly hyperbolic, but it captures the more austere Socratic approach that can be seen in the early days of Cynic philosophy.
What emerges from Antisthenes, for me, is just what follows (and only what follows) from Socrates’ philosophy: if virtue really is sufficient for happiness and the only thing that matters to a good life, as Socrates says, then pursue only virtue and run away from everything else.
Everything other than virtue is not good in itself and is just a distraction from the only thing that is good in itself. Wealth is a distraction, so throw it away; reputation is a distraction, so dismiss it; pleasure is a distraction, so avoid it.
This explains Antisthenes’ hyperbolic statement. Experiencing pleasure is pleasurable, which is something that you are naturally inclined to value. But pleasure itself is not valuable, this you know, and yet it distracts you from your pursuit of virtue, which you know is the only thing that really matters. As such, experiencing and valuing pleasure is irrational, and you know it. And Antisthenes would rather go mad than be knowingly irrational: the insane are at least not knowingly irrational.
Antisthenes said that hard labour was a good thing. We should choose the harder option, because it is less pleasurable, and therefore less likely to distract us from our pursuit of virtue. As a bonus, hard labour itself can be virtuous or a source of virtue, because it makes us stronger, but idleness and relaxation rarely achieve the same. Therefore, hard labour is a good thing. To be hard-working and eschew pleasure is virtuous and to be contrasted with a life of idle luxury: ‘May the children of my enemies be luxurious’, says Antisthenes.
This begins a tradition of the Cynics looking to ‘toil’ or ‘exercise’ (in the Greek, ponos) whenever they could. This doesn’t mean working hard or working out, clearly, because many of the Cynics were unemployed scroungers. Instead, it means looking to make life more difficult when you can in order to cultivate your virtue.
Wearing his poverty and low status like a badge of honour, Antisthenes was scornful of reputation, status, and glory. Such things are only measures of opinion, and what value are the opinions of the ignorant?
When he was praised by some ignorant and unvirtuous people, he said he was afraid he had done some ignorant or unvirtuous thing. He said it was a royal privilege to do well but be spoken badly of. He said it was better to fall among crows than among flatterers, because crows only devour the dead, but flatterers devour the living. (There is a characteristically clever pun on the Ancient Greek words for ‘crow’ and ‘flatterer’ here.)
If you are praised or flattered, for whatever reason, deserved or undeserved, you come to value the praise itself (because it makes you feel good) and not the virtue of whatever it was you were doing. Once again, being praised is something that distracts you from being virtuous, and so you should run away from praise.
Antisthenes was scornful of inherited status. He mocked the nobility by saying that his parents were not good wrestlers, and yet he was. Clearly, you do not inherit your virtue at birth but cultivate it through life. Therefore, it is foolish and shameful to celebrate your inherited status. Why celebrate that you have what you have not earned?
To those who are envious of the wealth and status of others, he warns that envy is like rust on a blade: it corrodes an otherwise strong and sharp person.
When asked why he was so harsh with people, he replied that doctors often have to resort to bitter medicine. When asked why he engaged in philosophical debate, if he was so indifferent to it, he replied that a doctor needs to mingle with the sick in order to treat them.
Wealth, nobility, philosophy, religion, politics: Antisthenes shows mocking indifference to them all. He asked of priests who were confident of rewards in the afterlife why they didn’t go ahead and die. He said that the wise person obeys the law of virtue, not the law of the state. He said that virtue is the same in a woman as in a man, rejecting the patriarchal conventions of the time.
Antisthenes’ austere Socratic approach is summed up thus: Virtue is all that matters and is sufficient for happiness. Virtue can be learnt and taught by philosophers, but it is something that is done and not only something that is known about. Virtue is a kind of work. It follows that you need to put effort into being virtuous, not just talking about it. Training yourself to be (as well as talk of being) virtuous requires a scornful and disciplined avoidance of all things that are not virtuous or else indifferent to virtue, such as wealth, status, and popular opinion.
Read more: Think Well, Live Well: A Free Introduction to Philosophy
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