How Is Ancient Philosophies Compared To The Modern World

Comparing Ancient Philosophies to the Modern World

Various philosophies were first established in ancient Greek, most of which aim to live a happy and content life but how do these philosophies compare to the modern day society? As established through the extreme actions and profound belief systems demonstrated in both ancient Cynicism and Epicureanism, in a modern day society, the ability to live as an Epicurean proves to be a simpler concept as opposed to living as a Cynic.

Primary and secondary sources are of great importance when conducting research on ancient civilisations. Primary sources are physical objects or written findings from the time period of the event which can be used to understand a moment in time or piece together other

Stamatello suggests that the aim of cynicism was to promote freedom, detachment, self-sufficiency and training in terms of physical and mental endurance as well as to live in accordance with nature. The Cynics were said to thrive on self-sufficiency and strength, in order to do this the Cynics trained themselves relentlessly, both physically and mentally by wearing nothing other than a coat when travelling, spending large proportions of their time outside in all weather conditions and living off of wild cereal and mustard for flavour whilst relying on natural springs to quench their thirst. As established by Stamatello, the Cynics were a Socratic school that lasted until as late as the sixth century CE. Antisthenes initial thought behind cynicism was that pleasure lead to misery. Diogenes Laertius (c.400-c.325 BC) supported this thought according to Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers VI when Diogenes stated that “desire leads to pleasure and pleasure to the misery of insufficient and temporal happiness.” As mentioned by multiple well educated authors and philosophers including Robbert F. Dobbin(2012), Diogenes of Sinope was the first known man to put cynicism into practice. In the 6Th (Vi) Oration Of Julian, Julian the apostate (331-363), an

In accordance to Tim O’keefe (2016), an author with a PHD in philosophy, along with the rise of Christianity brought the decline of Epicureanism. O’keefe explains that Epicureanism was disposed of when the Christian authorities found the philosophy “ungodly”. According to O’keefe, Epicurus believed in the freedom of fear in terms of the gods and worrying over the afterlife; in fact O’keefe stated that “Epicurus rejected gods and explained all natural phenomena through atomic terms.” According to O’keefe it was also a belief of Epicurus’ that the soul could only exist with a body therefore the soul could not survive after death resulting in the absence of an afterlife. O’keefe continued to support this statement by explaining how Epicurus believed if one can banish fear of their future, gods and death then they will be able to reach true tranquillity. "Since as long as we exist, death is not with us; but when death comes, then we do not exist." This direct quote from Epicurus further proves O’keefe’s explanation of Epicurus’ beliefs. Another belief of Epicurus as expressed by O’keefe is that he thought people should concentrate solely on what makes them feel happiness in the short term rather than the long term as for this will provide them with a happy long term, this is concept is commonly adopted in modern day society and