Philosophy & ThoughtGreek → English
Cyrenaic
/ˌsaɪrɪˈneɪɪk/adjective
Belonging to the school of Aristippus, which held that immediate bodily pleasure is the only good.
The Greek roots
Κυρήνη
Kyrḗnē
Cyrene, Greek city in Libya
Literally: “of Cyrene”
Follow a root:Κυρήνη1 word
The story of the word
Aristippus came from Cyrene, a Greek colony on the Libyan coast, and had studied under Socrates before drawing the least Socratic conclusion available. The Cyrenaics wanted pleasure now, in the body, on the grounds that only the present moment is ours; Epicurus later took the opposite tack, ranking calm and absence of pain above sensation. Popular usage collapses the two, which would have annoyed both schools.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → English
- First recorded
- 17th century
Same family
hedonismEpicureanCyrene
In a sentence
He defends a Cyrenaic position and refuses to dress it up as anything nobler.
The Cyrenaics come off badly in every summary written by a Stoic.