Cynical Antiphilosophy in Lucian’s Nigrinos

Marcin Pietrzak

Cynics in their pursuit of “defacing the coinage” did not content themselves with critique of culture from philosophical point of view, but turned warrant given by Apollon against philosophy itself. The root of cynical anti-philosophy was antiintelectualism and antiplatonism of Anthisthenes and his early followers. Lucian’s Nigrinos is a fine example of late cynical anti-philosophy. Author unfolds before reader panorama of 2nd century Athens, where philosophy is a widely accepted form of life and the object of communal education. Both satirical description of the city of philosophers and the quasi-religious conversion of the main speaker provide a comprehensive view of philosophy as an irrational attitude toward reason itself.

Keywords: Cynicism · Lucian of Samosata · bathos · anti-philosophy · anti-intellectualism · metaphilosophy · Nigrinos

Marcin Pietrzak – Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Opole University. He is the author of one book (Empirical Foundations of Ethics) and several articles. His main areas of interest are metaethics, philosophy of subjectivity, cynicism, virtue ethics and philosophical foundations of European humanism. He is especially involved in philosophical investigations of thought of such thinkers as Lucian of Samosata, Niccoló Machiavelli and Friedrich Nietzsche.

45Marcin Pietrzak – Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Opole University. He is the author of one book (Empirical Foundations of Ethics) and several articles. His main areas of interest are metaethics, philosophy of subjectivity, cynicism, virtue ethics and philosophical foundations of European humanism. He is especially involved in philosophical investigations of thought of such thinkers as Lucian of Samosata, Niccoló Machiavelli and Friedrich Nietzsche.
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