AR'ISTIP'PUS (Gk. 'Apierorroe, A rist ippos) . The founder of the Cyrenaic or Hedonistic School of Philosophy. lie was the son of Aristades of Cymric, in Africa, and was born probably not long before B.c. 435. He was drawn to Athens by the fame of Socrates, whose pupil he remained until his master's condemnation and death, with out, however. adopting fully his philosophy. After Socrates's death he lived in various cities, avoiding all hindering connections by becoming a citizen of no state, but having guest-friends in many. We know that he sojourned some time in l'Egina, in Corinth, where he was intimate with the famous courtesan Lafs, and especially at the Syracnsan court. He must have spent considerable time also in his native Cyrene, where he possessed property. for his philosophic school was there established. His master, Soc rates, had taught that virtue and felicity to gether formed the highest aim of man; the lat ter Aristippus emphasized as a principle in it self, and declared that pleasure (0114, hrylone) was the supreme good. According to him, our sensations alone are the real bases of knowledge, and all that gives pleasant sensations must be good : virtue and all so-called moral obligations and limitations have no validity so far as they limit pleasure. Yet Aristippus shows the influence of Socratic doctrine when he teaches that the wise man will wish to preserve the enjoyment he may secure by practicing self-control. judgnumt,
and moderation; and for the same end will re sist the mastery of the passions. Further, the greatest pleasure is to be found in the cultiva tion of the mind. For this teaching he has been not inaptly named a pseudo-Socratic.
Many anecdotes about Aristippus have come down from antiquity. They show him to have been a skillful man of the world, capable of adapting himself to the changes of fortune. Plato is reported to have said that Aristippus was the only man he knew who could wear with equal grace both fine clothes and rags. Diogenes Laertius has preserved to us many of his boar snots and repartees. He apparently did not for mulate a philosophy himself ; the Cyrenaic sys tem was probably worked out by Arete, his daughter, and by her son, Aristippus the younger. (See HEnomssi.) Aristippus's works, if he left any, have been lost; the five letters to which his name is attached are unquestionably spurious. Consult: Zeller, Gesehichte der grieehischen Philosophic (Leipzig, 1893), and Uebcrweg. History of Philosophy, English trans lation (New York, 1877).