Media :
Availability:
Available to listen.
Last broadcast on Thu, 20 Oct 2005, 21:30 on BBC Radio 4 (see all broadcasts).
Synopsis
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Cynics, the performance artists of philosophy. Eating live octopus with fresh lupins, performing intimate acts in public places and shouting at passers by from inside a barrel is behaviour not normally associated with philosophy. But the Cynics were different. They were determined to expose the meaninglessness of civilised life by action as well as by word. They slept rough, ate simply and gave their lectures in the market place. Perhaps surprisingly, their ideas and attitudes were immensely popular in the ancient world.
But how coherent was cynicism as a philosophy? What was its influence on literature and politics and is there any truth to the contention that Jesus himself was influenced by the Cynics?
With Angie Hobbs, Lecturer in Philosophy, University of Warwick; Miriam Griffin, Fellow of Somerville College, Oxford; John Moles, Professor of Latin, University of Newcastle.
Further Reading
Miriam Griffin, Seneca: A Philosopher in Politics (Clarendon, 1992)
Miriam Griffin, The History of Cynicism: From Diogenes to the Sixth Century A.D. (Bristol Classical Press, 1998)
The Cambridge History of Greek and Roman Political Thought (2000)
Donald R. Dudley, History of Cynicism: From Diogenes to the Sixth Century A.D. (1967)
Horace, Satires, (Penguin Classic, 1973)
Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers (2 vols, Loeb, 1925)
Ian Cutler, Cynicism from Diogenes to Dilbert (London, 2005)
Broadcasts
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Thu 20 Oct 200509:00
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Thu 20 Oct 200521:30
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