Antisthenes

Antisthenes (Ancient Greek Ἀντισθένης Antisthénēs) (444 BC - 365 BC) was a Greek philosopher, considered the founder of the Cynic school. He was born in Athens of Thracian parents, and thus his status as a metic (foreigner) marked him throughout his life. He studied rhetoric under Gorgias, Hippias of Elis, and Prodicus of Ceos and later became a disciple of Socrates, from whom he adopted and developed his teachings on ethics.

Disenchanted with existing philosophy, he lost faith in it. His enthusiasm for Socratic discipline led him to found a school in the sanctuary and gymnasium of Cynosargo; the name of the place (probably from κύων ἀργός, kýōn argós, "agile dog") is one of the probable origins for the nickname cynics (in Greek κυνικός, kynikós, "dog-like"). His disciples were mainly among the popular classes, due to the simplicity that he preached. His clothing—cloak and staff—became the school uniform.

Antisthenes' doctrine is fragmentary, although he is known to have written extensively. Like the Eleatic philosophers, he denied the reality of qualities, since they would imply that a certain being is and is not the same at the same time. From Antisthenes it is the first surviving definition of the statement as

that which says what something is or was.

Diogenes Laercio: Lives, opinions and sentences of the most illustrious philosophers, VI, 3.

In turn, through Plato's Cratylus, another of his teachings can be appreciated, according to which:

Who knows the name, knows the thing.

He wrote little on ethics, preferring to lead asceticism and simplicity by example. He defended a negative theology, stating that the god is not like things, and nothing that can be said of them can be said of him. Aristotle and Plato show little appreciation for his philosophy, stating that he was incapable of understanding the subtleties of dialectic.^{[citation needed]}

His disciple was Diogenes of Sinope.