ABSTRACT
Antisthenes was Socratic in his austerity of attitude, his liking for dialectic, his restrictive logic and his preoccupation with a stricter conception of arete than that which the Sophists offered to teach. He was a devoted adherent of Socrates. Some ancient authorities designate Antisthenes as the first Cynic and the founder of the cynic philosophy. The cynic movement is so loose in texture that it would be difficult to exclude Antisthenes from connections with it. Antisthenes was recognised in the fourth century BC as being something more than a randomly cantankerous Sophist. Diogenes Laertius tells the story that Plato mocked Antisthenes for his interest in this 'antilegein' principle, and as a result Antisthenes wrote his attack on Plato: Sathon e peri tou antilegein. Xenophon describes him in his Symposium as not luxurious, content with little, having none of that acquisitive instinct which he links with tyrants who in turn are causes of the destruction of families and whole cities.
