

Cynicism
Author: Ansgar Allen
Series: MIT Press Essential Knowledge
Narrator: Nigel Patterson
Unabridged: 5 hr 9 min
Format: Digital Audiobook Download
Publisher: Ascent Audio
Published: 05/05/2020
Categories: Nonfiction, Philosophy, History & Surveys
Synopsis
Allen describes ancient Cynicism as an improvised philosophy and a way of life disposed to scandalize contemporaries, subjecting their cultural commitments to derision. He chronicles the subsequent "purification" of Cynicism by the Stoics; Renaissance and Enlightenment appropriations of Cynicism; and the transition from Cynicism (the philosophy) to cynicism (the modern attitude), exploring contemporary cynicism from the perspectives of its leftist, liberal, and conservative critics. Finally, he considers the possibility of a radical cynicism that admits and affirms the danger it poses to contemporary society.