From History of Philosophy by Alfred Weber and Frank Thilly, 1907
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1. Aristippus of Cyrene¹⁾ was a sensualistic Sophist before joining the Socratics, and adhered to the theoretical teachings of that school. With Protagoras, he maintains that all our knowledge is subjective, and that we cannot know what things are in themselves. He sharply distinguishes between the object of knowledge and Kant's thing-in-itself, that is, the external and absolutely unknown cause of our sensations(to empoietikon tou pathous).²⁾ His ethics, too, is more in accord with the principles of Protagoras than those of Socrates. Pleasure(hedone) is, according to him, the ultimate aim of life. Hence the name hedonism is applied to his doctrine, which must not, however, be interpreted as a coarse sensualism. He is a follower of Socrates and his moral principles on this important point, and demands, above all, moderation in indulgence, rational self-command in presence of the allurements of sense, and intelligent control of the vulgar instincts of our nature. We must, he said, remain masters of ourselves under all circumstances, so that we may say: ekho ouk ekhomai, or, as the Latin poet translates the maxim of Aristippus: —

— Mihi res non me rebus subjungere conor.³⁾

Mental pleasures, friendship, paternal and filial love, art and literature, take precedence, in the scale of enjoyments, over fleeting sensuous feelings; and the wise man should particularly seek, not the pleasures of the moment, but lasting joys, a permanent state of moral content (khara eudaimonia). Moreover, Aristippus and his adherents agree with the Sophists that all action has for its motive the desire to be happy, and for its end the pleasure which the act procures. They likewise agree with Protagoras in religion. The hedonists were outspoken freethinkers, and helped to demolish the remnants of the polytheistic faith among the educated classes. In a work entitled The Gods, Theodoras of Cyrene, called the Atheist,⁴⁾ openly espoused atheism; another hedonist, Euhemerus,⁵⁾ held, in a sensational treatise (hiera anagraphe)⁶⁾, that the gods were heroes, kings, and distinguished men who had been deified after their death. This theory proved very acceptable to a great number of Romans, and even Christians, who rejoiced at having paganism furnish them with such powerful weapons against itself. However narrow this view may seem, it has the merit of being one of the first attempts at a science which it has been left to our age to study and develop: I mean the philosophy of religion.

Hedonism passes through a process of evolution which may, at first sight, seem surprising, but which is no more than natural; it changes, into pessimism in the philosophy of Hegesias,⁷⁾ called peisithanatos (“persuader to die”). This evolution was the logical outcome of the hedonistic principle. The aim of life is, according to the Cyrenaic school, pleasure; the sensation of the moment (hedone en kinesei), according to some, permanent pleasure or happiness (khara eudaimonia), according to others. Now experience proves that life affords more pain than pleasure, and that unalloyed happiness is a dream. Hence the end of life is not and cannot be realized. Life, therefore, has no value. As a consequence, death is preferable to life; for death at least procures for us the only happiness possible to human beings, a negative happiness consisting in the absolute suppression of pain.⁸⁾ This is the way in which Hegesias reasons, and all must reason who regard pleasure, joy, or happiness as the only end of life (telos). Life has real value only for such as recognize a higher aim, namely, moral goodness, the performance of duty, virtue for virtue's i sake; in other words, life has value only for him who considers it as a means and not as an end in itself, that is, in short, for the idealist. For him, virtue is the highest good. Now virtue can be realized only by living beings. Hence life itself, being the means and indispensable condition of virtue or of the highest good, is a relative good, and not the summum bonum. Hence moral idealism necessarily excludes pessimism.

The hedonistic school, which again becomes optimistic in Anniceris of Cyrene,⁹⁾ is continued by the school of Epicurus,¹⁰⁾ who supplements the ethics of Aristippus with the physics of Democritus.