Cyrenaics

The Cyrenaics were an ancient Greek philosophical school based in Cyrene (in present-day Libya). Founded in the 4th century BCE by Aristippus of Cyrene, they advanced a form of ethical hedonism: pleasure is the highest good and the proper aim of life, with pain to be avoided when possible.

Core doctrines center on the primacy of sensual pleasure. The Cyrenaics held that all knowledge begins with sensation and that the most reliable pleasures are experienced in the present moment. Since the future is uncertain, they urged a practical strategy: maximize present pleasure and minimize present pain. Virtue and the pursuit of knowledge are valuable insofar as they contribute to this aim, though critics argued that virtue has no intrinsic value beyond its instrumental role in obtaining pleasure.

The Cyrenaics distinguished among different kinds of pleasures, often emphasizing immediate, intense sensations over longer-lasting ones. Many adherents taught that the wise life involves enjoying impressions and avoiding excessive restraint, while recognizing the need for self-control to prevent avoidable suffering.

Influence and decline: The school laid early groundwork for hedonistic ethics in the Western tradition and influenced later discussions on pleasure, desire, and epistemology. Notable figures associated with Cyrenaic thought include Aristippus, Theodorus of Cyrene, and Hegesias of Cyrene, the latter of whom argued that life is dominated by pain and that one should renounce or extinguish desires to escape it. The Cyrenaics faced critique from Plato, Aristotle, and later Stoics, who argued for virtue or self-mashion as primary goods beyond mere pleasure.