In Raphael’s “The School of Athens,” you can find Socrates talking enthusiastically with his students on the left. Among them, Alcibiades stands out. He was well known as a handsome general in Athens. There is another pupil of Socrates who is quite famous. It’s Aristippus. He might be one of the students in the painting. Let’s say it’s him.
Socrates didn't receive tuition from his students. It's because he believed that his students recollected what they already knew, so he didn't teach them anything. Like Socrates. his students didn't accept tuition from their own students either. Except for one person: Aristippus. Aristippus received tuition from his own students. So others criticized him for this. To this Aristippus replied, "Socrates may not have made money, but he accepted entertainment." Yes, that's right. After engaging in discussions with his students, Socrates used to have an after-party called symposiums. Aristippus, who made some money for himself, must have spent a lot of money. One day, when Socrates asked him where he made so much money, he replied, “I made money where you did.”
Aristippus was born in Cyrene, Libya, which was a colonial city of Ancient Greece at the time. When he was young, he went to Athens and became a pupil of Socrates. So, he was acquainted with Plato and was friends with Diogenes. However, Aristippus had different ideas from Plato and Diogenes. He explicitly indulged in physical pleasure. Probably no one in the history of Western philosophy emphasized physical pleasure as explicitly Aristippus did. This is called hedonism. Hedonism. This is the story for today.
18 сен 2024
