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Question: Did cynics, like stoics, believe in "destiny"!?
For thesis!.!.!.Www@QuestionHome@Com


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Cynics were, in many ways, an idealized form of stoicism!. However, Cynics were much less concerned with the cosmic order of things, it was exclusively a system of ethics!. It wasn't a comprehensive system, like Stoicism or Christianity, which base their ethics on a metaphysical basis, it was simply a pathway to live virtuously!. Cynicism was traditionally practiced in periods of hardship or calamity, such as the Greek conquest by the Macedonians and later Romans!. It did experience a slight renaissance during late antiquity, when the Empire began to crumble, due to its insistence on the surrender of worldly possessions as a means of achieving virtue!. During more prosperous periods, it was typically overshadowed by Stoicism, which preaches a sort of melancholy and indifference to excess, instead of an outright rejection of it!. It is thought that Cyncism was a key belief of the later Greek Christian scholars, and some scholars even point to the historical Jesus as being a Jewish Cynic, due to the Cynic's belief in things like worldly rejection and sympathy for the downtrodden and poor!.

Cynics, like Stoicism, was banned in 529 CE by Emperor Justinian I for being unchristian, though the destruction of traditional Greek thought had started centuries earlier when Emperor Theodosius made Christianity the state religion and destroyed all of the great Greek centers of learning, such as Plato's academy and Aristotle's Lyceum, or Alexandria's Great Library (as it contained records of Pagan religions)

Cynics said that living in accordance with nature is a goal, implying free will!. Stoicism, by contrast, said that the universe is naturally deterministic and deviance is not natural!. Stoicism wasn't so much a break from the Cynics (indeed, Stoicism was directly founded on Cynic beliefs), rather, it was more of a paradigm shift that focused more on the universal spirit of the universe, as opposed to the Cynics which had no such canon!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

By "destiny," I hope you are not referring to such things as "your fate is in the stars," or "you were given your fate at your birth and you cannot change it!."

"The doctrine of fate held an important position in the monistic system of the Stoics!. Its universal existence was a logical consequence of their assumptions with regard to the physical universe, for they recognized nothing that was not ultimately reducible to matter and natural law!."

Matter and natural law do not allow for mysticism!.

"!.!.!.or, as we should say, fate is the result of natural law in the physical world!. Cicero himself, however, says further on (ibid!., II, 3, par!. 6), "What is the use of maintaining the existence of Fate when, without Fate, an explanation of everything may be found in Nature or Fortune!?"
http://www!.newadvent!.org/cathen/05793a!.h!.!.!.

Can't find anything about Cynics and "destiny!."Www@QuestionHome@Com

I think that a cynic cannot believe in destiny because it would take away too much of the accountability of others!. The joy of cynicism comes in mocking things that won't be changed, not things that can't be changed!. a subtle difference I think, but it would be too depressing to believe that the idiotic things that come about in life were divinely mandated and not the result of human ignorance!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

No!
Though I am not sure of the particulars of cynical philosophy I am going to assume that one who is inclined to be cynical would have skeptical doubt about the concept of fate or destiny!.Www@QuestionHome@Com