cynic = cínico, cynique, cynisk, etc.?

[Brazilian dude]

I never took the trouble to really find out the meaning of cynic(al) until today, when I realized that it doesn't have exactly the same meaning in all European languages, maybe a result of a differing understanding of the Greek philosophy. We shall focus on the meaning that we most often come across these days, wherein seems to lie the crux of the matter:

In English:

[KatyBr]

[Ilka]

The Spanish, Portuguese and French meaning apply to the person's behavior, while the other definitions apply to his attitude toward others.

According to my Duden Dictionary of Etymology, followers of the school of Cynicism were, in a sense, like dogs (the origin of the word cynic is to be found in the Greek word Kyon "dog"), in that they attacked their victims in a vicious and shameless manner.

Perhaps the meaning of cynic didn't have to wander far from a brazen person to one of questionable morals.

Ilka

[Brazilian dude]

[KatyBr]

[uncronopio]

Brazilian dude, I had the same problem when I first encountered the word in English. In Spanish people rarely (if ever) say 'I am cynical about this', while I have heard that many times from English speakers.
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"Always do right. This will gratify some people and astonish the rest." -- Mark Twain

[Brazilian dude]

Exactly.

Brazilian dude
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Languages rule!

[tcward]

When those people were saying they were 'cynical about' something, what did they mean?

I've heard it used that way, basically meaning 'jaded' (see def. 2 in English).

-Tim
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[Apoclima]

Although cynics believed in the virtuous life as a prerequisite to happiness. The cynic had a very different idea of virtue. Although altruism was considered a virtue, a cynic would certainly find in it, by sarcasm and satire, an underlying motive of self-interest.

Social conventions and mores were equally and easily dismissed as false values standing in the way of true virtuous living. Things that were of non-utilitarian value like art and finery were held in comtempt. Wine was more valuable than a statue and flour was more valuable than poetry.

If one looks at the lives of the Cynic philosophers, there is a great resemblance to the voluntary homeless of our day.

We all have the image of Diogenes, sleeping under his tub during the day (probably with a hangover), and searching the night with a lantern (I doubt that he owned one) for an honest man, and, of course, never finding one!

Antisthenes was famous for the line, "The best wine is someone else's."

Socrates, while talking about the nature of pride to a group that included Antisthenes, insisted about him, "I can see your pride through the holes in your clothes."

I see very little drifting in the different uses of this word in modern times. Firstly it means that one considers human beings to be acting in self-interest, that other explanations are rationalizations (lies) and that human society, culture and morality are based the tangle of these false values.

To say that I am cynical about something means that I question the truth of it, because the underlying motivation of believing it is self-interest, just more façade to justify a corrupt society, or it enhances someone else's self-interest.

It doesn't seem a great jump to me, for a cynic to mean one that people consider immoral, because the questioning and rejecting of societal values as arbitrary and capricious certainly lends itself to "immoral actions."

Apo
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'Experiments are the only means of knowledge at our disposal. The rest is poetry, imagination.' -Max Planck

[Brazilian dude]

[tcward]

[Brazilian dude]

I'll never forgive myself. How didn't I see that?

Brazilian dude
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Languages rule!

[Apoclima]

Tim:

[malachai]

[Perry]

The OED has an interesting angle on this word. It connects the word to the name of the gymnasium where Antisthenes taught, the Grey Dog.