This list is based on the writings in The Cynic Philosophers from Diogenes to Julian (Robert Dobbin, editor, Penguin Classics, 2012).
- askêsis (training, deliberate personal growth, fitness)
- autarkeia (independence, liberty, self-sufficiency, not seeking out patronage)
- cosmopolitanism
- nonconformity
- informality
- karteria (endurance / perseverance / forbearance / toughness)
- non attachment
- parrhêsia (candor, straightforwardness, frankness, freedom of speech)
- self control
- simplicity / frugality / poverty
- temperance
Things that the Cynics seemed not to see as virtues included:
- patriotism
- propriety
- respect for authority / position
- tact
See also¶
- Stoicism. The way Epictetus describes Cynics in his Discourses makes it seem like he thought of the Cynics as a sort of monastic order of ultra-Stoics… Stoic saints maybe… practicing Stoicism to an extent unattainable by the laity. Cicero on the other hand rejected Cynicism: “The Cynic philosophy should be rejected outright; it is incompatible with our sense of decency or shame.”
