Diogenes Laertes, Lives of Philosophers bk 2 | Aristippus, Wealth, Power, Philosophy | Core Concepts

Hi, this is Dr. Gregory Sadler. I'm a professor of philosophy and the president and founder of an educational consulting company called Reason.io, where we put philosophy into practice. I've studied and taught philosophy for over 20 years, and I find that many people run into difficulties reading classic philosophical texts. Sometimes it's the way things are said or how the text is structured, but the concepts themselves are not always that complicated, and that's where I come in. To help students and lifelong learners, I've been producing longer lecture videos and posting them to YouTube. Many viewers say they find them useful. What you're currently watching is part of a new series of shorter videos, each of them focused on one core concept from an important philosophical text. I hope you find it useful as well. Aristippus was the founder of a minor Socratic school, which we call the Cyrenaics, and he was a student for a while of Socrates and friend of his as well, and contemporary of Plato and Xenophon and Aeschines and all these other people. And he set out for himself a distinctive approach to life for which he was criticized by quite a few, but he was very happy with it himself. And I think one of the best places to begin in Diogenes Laertes' life of Aristippus is with the passage where he's being criticized for ordering a very expensive bird, a partridge that costs 50 drachmae. Right. And somebody says, would you not have given an old, he says, would you not have given an oval for it? A very small bit. And the person said, sure. Yeah. And then he says, well, 50 drachmae are no more to me. And then there's another discussion where he says Dionysus, the ruler who we're going to talk about shortly, gave him his choice of three prostitutes. He carried off all three saying Paris paid dearly for the preference to one out of three, but he doesn't actually have sex with the prostitutes. He takes them up to his threshold of his door. And then he says, all right, see you later. And he sends them on his way. So what is this displaying? Diogenes says something very interesting here. This shows us these sort of incidents, how Aristippus typically, and the words here in Greek, koutos, in what manner, right? Paulus, you know, most often how he generally is going to engage in. And then he uses two important terms here, choosing, helestai, to, you know, select one thing instead of another. And then disdaining is how it's translated. But you could also say holding in contempt or valuing very lowly. So Aristippus, his life, you could say, is one that's governed by the pursuit of pleasure. And philosophy is going to play a role in that. And obviously you need money in order to pursue a lot of pleasures, particularly if you're buying expensive meals, which he does. But how do you value these things? How do you prioritize them? And this is where his approach is actually quite distinctive. So if we look at what he says that philosophy provides him with, there's some very interesting remarks here that tie in with this. So one of the things that philosophy provides him with, he says, is being at ease is how it's translated. The Greek word there is tharontos, comes from the word for confidence, feeling, you know, that you're up to something, that you can handle it. Tharus, right? Which is an emotion sometimes translated in terms of bravery. Another thing that he says that's really quite interesting is about what would happen. He says, what advantage, what benefits is there for those who study philosophy, those who are pursuing philosophy? And he says that if all laws, and laws here includes norms, customs, right? If all of them should be repealed or taken away, then we, he uses the term there, first person plural, we would continue to live the same sort of life. Why? Because they're not dependent on external penalties or social pressure or anything like that, in order for them to pursue what they think is the best and most rational life. So that's quite important. He also has a few remarks about philosophy as being the culmination of education. And before that, he's asked, how do the educated, those who've undergone some sort of development, how do they differ from the uneducated? He says, well, just like horses that have been trained differ from untrained horses, right? So the horses that are untrained are just following their instincts. Those that are trained can actually do something different. And if they're educated in the right way, they can be their own masters, right? And so a little bit later, here we go. He's talking about those who are studying all sorts of things, those who go through the ordinary curriculum, but stop short of philosophy. He used to compare to the suitors of Penelope. So if you don't know what the reference there is, Odysseus goes away to war and it takes him 20 years to come back. Meanwhile, there are people on Ithaca who are trying to pursue his wife so they can marry her, not just have sex with her. They're already having sex with all of the household servants, but so that they can get the house, right? And so he says, the suitors won Melantho, Polidora, the rest of the handmaidens, but were anything but successful in the wooing of the mistress. Meaning that they study all this other great stuff, but they don't study the one thing that would put it all into perspective. That would allow them to figure out how to structure their life. And so what is Aristippus's life like? Well, we see both in the description of his philosophical position and in the things that he does, he pursues pleasures. As a matter of fact, he goes for the pleasures that are close at hand. He's willing to spend plenty of money for the pleasures that he's got. He's willing to exchange that and says he derived pleasure from what is present and did not toil to procure the enjoyment of something not present. So, you know, rather than like clean his own vegetables, like Diogenes does, he'll go to the court of the tyrants and, you know, hang out with him and chat with him and eat his food and stuff like that. And then he gets, you know, he gets criticized for that. What about this whole thing of taking money or taking benefits? Well, we learn that Aristippus is a Socratic philosopher who does, in fact, take money for teaching. And this comes up several times, right? He was the first of the followers of Socrates to charge fees to take money for what he's doing. But it's interesting here, and this really sheds a light on some things. He sends some of the money to Socrates. You know, we often portray Socrates, oh, I am not like these sophists who take money for educating people. And we hold them up as this high, very often unrealistic standard. Aristippus, if this is actually correct, was helping to support his old teacher, right? And sometimes Socrates would return the stuff saying that the supernatural sign would not let him take it, right? So, you know, this is going to come up at several different points, this money making issue and this relationship to Socrates. Now, he will say, interestingly, later on when he's being asked about, you know, why he's he's taking money that he here we go. When I needed wisdom, I went to Socrates. Now that I need money, I come to you. Socrates literally, you know, he he does have a pot to piss in, but not much more than that. Right. And he's dependent on his followers helping him out. But he has wisdom that Aristippus can glean or gain from him. Everybody else is there as somebody who can contribute the funds. Right. So that is an interesting observation. You know, he also talks about rich people and philosophers. And this puts some things into perspective. When Dionysus inquired, what was the reason that philosophers go to rich people's houses while the rich people no longer visit philosophers? Aristippus's reply was that the one know what they need while the other do not. So, you know, philosophers know that they need some money and they'll go to the rich people. The rich people don't really know what they need in order to make their lives a genuinely happy one, a self-controlled one. So that's quite a good observation here. A little bit later, somebody is saying that he always saw philosophers at rich men's doors. And Aristippus says, well, sure, physicians are in attendance on those who are sick. But no one for that reason would prefer being sick to being a physician. And in fact, Aristippus thinks that the philosophical life is a life with greater value, as is revealed by a non monetary one. They're overtaken by a storm. And somebody says, we plain men are not alarmed. Are you philosophers turned cowards? And he says, well, the lives at stake in the two cases are not actually comparable, meaning that the philosopher's life is much more valuable. Not, you know, in terms of social status or wealth or stuff like that, but in terms of attaining happiness. He teaches his friends, according to this, they ask him, why do you take money from your friends? And he says, well, to teach them how to spend their money. Well, effectively, how to pick out the right things to spend money on, which is an interesting rejoinder. And then he's got a willingness not only to do things to get the money that he needs. As a matter of fact, here's here's a really funny case with Dionysus that I can't resist bringing up at this point. Dionysus was asked for some money and he says, no, you told me the wise person would never be in want. And so then Aristippus says, well, pay me now and then we'll discuss the question. And so Dionysus pays him. And then he says, now you see, do you not, that I was not found wanting, meaning that I knew where to get the money from. Namely, you, sucker, who gave me the money asking about the very question. Now I'm I'm set and I'm answering your question. And look, I am a wise man who is, in fact, doing quite well. There is this willingness to cast money away, which we see in, for example, a case where he's got so much money that he's his servant can't carry it all. And so, you know, he tells him, well, you know, leave it behind that we don't actually need all of this. And then there's a case where he throws his money overboard when pirates are coming in. Yeah, here's here's the earlier one. Pour away the greater part and carry no more than you can manage. Just take what you actually need. The second story being once on a voyage when he discovered the vessel to be manned by pirates. He took out his money, began to count it. And then by carelessness, as if by that, he let the money fall into the sea and broke out into lamentation. Another version of the story says the further remark, it was better for the money to perish on account of Aristippus than for Aristippus to perish on account of the money. So he's got a good sense of the value, the limited value, the relative value of money. There's also a recognition of the need for money. And right after this is where we've got that quip about when I needed wisdom, I went to Socrates. I come to you for money. But he goes on just a little bit before that. Dionysus asked him what he was come for. And he said it was to impart what he had and obtain what he had not. Meaning I'll give you some of my wisdom, my guidance and how to live your life. And you will give me funds in return. There's actually a great story as well about somebody who wants to hire him to teach his kids. Here we go. When someone brought his son as a pupil, he asked for a fee of 500 drachma. That's kind of a lot of money. The father objected. For that sum, I can buy a slave. And Aristippus says, well, go ahead, buddy. Then you will have two. Meaning that your son won't learn anything and will be a poor manager of his life. Which basically makes him a slave to whatever he happens to pursue. Could be money, could be pleasure, could be prestige, could be all sorts of things. But he's not going to be living the philosophical life unless you pay me the money to do this. So what we see here in this relation to money is that there's a recognition that money gets things done. You do need it for some degree, but you don't want to be beholden to it. And you can boldly ask people for it because it is of lesser value than the things that Aristippus considers to be good. And other people recognize as good in him as a philosopher. He gets criticized quite often by a number of people for accommodating himself too much to Dionysus, to being too agreeable. And one prime example of this. So, you know, there's really two big criticizers here. There's Diogenes, the cynic. So he's at one extreme and he's saying, oh, you know, you're just a kiss butts to tyrants. And then there's Plato. Now, Plato himself hangs out with Dionysus, but Plato sets down certain limits that Aristippus doesn't think you actually need to do. So here's a story that illustrates this. One day, Dionysus over the wine, meaning drunk, commanded everyone to put on purple and dance. So get in your really fancy stuff and dance around. Plato declined, quoting the line. I could not stoop to put on women's robes. Aristippus, however, put on the dress and as he was about to dance, was ready with the repartee. Even among the Bacchic revelry, true modesty will not be put to shame. Meaning I can do this stupid thing for you, but it's just like being at a festival. It's just for play. It's not really affecting me in my core. Plato, you're going to be a stick in the mud over there. I'll go along with it because Dionysus is the one who is running the party in this case. And so what this shows is a certain attitude of recognition, but also freedom in relation to the wealthy and the powerful. He also, as we put it out earlier, gets criticized quite a bit for extravagance in spending. And his response is, that's what money is for, to attain the things that you actually want. If you're willing to spend this much on this, well, then why not more? I mean, look at what people do during festivals for the gods. Look at what Dionysus himself does. You say that he's not a bad guy. So if it's okay for them to be extravagant in those situations or in this person's power seat or something like that, well, why isn't it okay for me to spend money however I see fit? You probably would do the same if you actually had that much money. That's how little money has a hold over me. Similar to how he's going to talk about pleasure. One of the key ideas for the Cyrenaic school, pleasure is the good. But he will actually say that it's not abstinence from pleasures that is best, but mastery over them without ever being worsted, without ever being controlled by them, right? So, you know, he has the same attitude towards wealth, towards social prestige. All of it feeds back into this, you know, choosing and having contempt, not caring about the right things and being at ease, being a person who can run their own life without a lot of outside guidance or interference, because they've literally become like a law onto themselves. And that is the culmination of education philosophy put into practical life in one's choices and the things that one just doesn't care about.