The Birth of Hedonism: The Cyrenaic Philosophers and Pleasure as a Way of Life

by Kurt Lampe

According to Xenophon, Socrates tried to persuade his associate Aristippus to moderate his excessive indulgence in wine, women, and food, arguing that only hard work can bring happiness. Aristippus wasn't convinced. Instead, he and his followers espoused the most radical form of hedonism in ancient Western philosophy. Before the rise of the better known but comparatively ascetic Epicureans, the Cyrenaics pursued a way of life in which moments of pleasure, particularly bodily pleasure, held the highest value. In The Birth of Hedonism, Kurt Lampe provides the most comprehensive account in any language of Cyrenaic ideas and behavior, revolutionizing the understanding of this neglected but important school of philosophy.

The Birth of Hedonism thoroughly and sympathetically reconstructs the doctrines and practices of the Cyrenaics, who were active between the fourth and third centuries BCE. The book examines not only Aristippus and the mainstream Cyrenaics, but also Hegesias, Anniceris, and Theodorus. Contrary to recent scholarship, the book shows that the Cyrenaics, despite giving primary value to discrete pleasurable experiences, accepted the dominant Greek philosophical belief that life-long happiness and the virtues that sustain it are the principal concerns of ethics. The book also offers the first in-depth effort to understand Theodorus's atheism and Hegesias's pessimism, both of which are extremely unusual in ancient Greek philosophy and which raise the interesting question of hedonism's relationship to pessimism and atheism. Finally, the book explores the "new Cyrenaicism" of the nineteenth-century writer and classicist Walter Pater, who drew out the enduring philosophical interest of Cyrenaic hedonism more than any other modern thinker.

Genres: Philosophy, Nonfiction

304 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2014

Reviews

[C. Varn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kurt Lampe offers the most comprehensive overview of Cyreniac philosophy possible from working through the doxologies and fragments and doing comparative philosophy with other post-Socratic and Hellenistic philosophical schools. Lampe is both sympathetically and systematically reconstructs the version schools of Cyreniac thought working through Aristippus, and then to Hegesias, Anniceris, and Theodorus. The reconstruction of the Hegesiac, Anniceriac, and Thoedoriac shows thought patterns overlapping with Pyrhonic skepticism and Epicureanism, but Lampe makes it very clear that the ascetic impulses in Epicureanism are different from any of the Cyreniac schools and that the Epicurean focus on natural law and the physical universe was profoundly different from Cyreniac concerns. While definitely a monograph, Lampe's work here is highly readable and does not require specialist knowledge of the topic. Lampe's discussion of Walter Pater's "New Cyreniacism" as well as discussion of Michel Onfray's modern hedonism do work as points of contrast. One also gains insights into the Socratic and post-Socratic diversity in philosophy often missed by focusing solely on more conventional schools and sources. An excellent work.

[Mingus Kramer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kolere wat een pittig boek. Wel effe je engels ready hebben. Wel leipe dingen in gelezen. Weet alleen ff niet meer precies wat.

[Jon Nitta · Rating 4 out of 5]

Clear presentation of the history of hedonism. I would have liked a bit more connection to modern day thinking but otherwise, it was enlightening!

[Fatih · Rating 4 out of 5]

an explanatory book with a simple narrative.

[Rachel Grey · Rating 2 out of 5]

DNF -- fairly readable for being someone's PhD thesis, but it made me realize that my own interests lie more with modern thought.