Kynikos

Kynikos (Greek Κυνικός) means dog-like and is the source of the English term Cynic. It was used to describe a school of ancient Greek philosophy that emerged in Athens in the early 4th century BCE, rooted in the teachings of Antisthenes, a pupil of Socrates, and reaching its most influential figure in Diogenes of Sinope. The Cynics argued that virtue is the only good and that social conventions—wealth, power, status, and even religion—are irrelevant or corrupt. They taught living in accordance with nature and practicing autarkeia, or self-sufficiency, often adopting an ascetic lifestyle and displaying shameless frankness to expose hypocrisy. They critiqued conventional desires and social pretensions through public demonstrations and provocative rhetoric. Prominent later Cynics included Crates of Thebes, Hipparchia the Cynic, and Menippus.

The movement stressed independence from external goods and social approval, a cosmopolitan outlook, and a focus on personal virtue over institutional authority. Although the Cynics never formed a cohesive political faction and declined as a formal school after the Hellenistic period, their ideas influenced later philosophical currents, most notably Stoicism, and contributed to a tradition of satirical and anti-establishment critique. In modern usage, cynicism often denotes general distrust of others' motives, a legacy attributed to the Cynics' reputation for blunt critique of hypocrisy.