This book is an introduction to the main figures and to the philosophical thought of the Cyrenaic school, one of the three (minor) schools that – together with the Cynics and the Megarics (or Dialecticians) – goes under the traditional label “Socratic schools”. On these terms, the Cyrenaic school is a Socratic school: why is it Socratic and why a school?

THE CYRENAICS AS A SOCRATIC SCHOOL

On a minimalist interpretation, the Cyrenaics are Socratic thinkers because the supposed founder of the school, Aristippus of Cyrene, was a close associate of Socrates. On a more committed interpretation, the Cyrenaics are Socratic thinkers because they developed further both the kind of personal commitment to knowledge that is already fully present in Socrates' theoretical activity and his lifelong concern for ethics. In particular, the Cyrenaics had a major interest in Socrates' idea – dealt with in the last part of the Protagoras – that pleasure and good are closely related, if not fully identifiable. On the basis of this more committed interpretation, the Cynics were instead exclusively concerned with the ethical aspect of Socrates' philosophy, which, again, was developed by them in ways that were different from Socrates' original ethics. On the other hand, the Megarics were interested in the logical side of the Socratic activity, but they also shared, like all the other Socratics (and this is the overall common feature of the three schools), a certain interest in ethics.