Hegesias of Cyrene

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Hegesias (Greek: Ἡγησίας) of Cyrenes was a Cyrenaic philosopher, who probably lived c. 300 BC.

He is said by Diogenes Laërtius^[1] to have been the disciple of Paraebates, himself a disciple of Antipater of Cyrene, himself a pupil of Aristippus (435-c.360 BC). He was the fellow-student of Anniceris, from whom, however, he differed by presenting in its most pessimistic form the system which Anniceris softened and improved.

He followed Aristippus in considering pleasure the object of man's desire; but, the view which he took of human life was of the gloomiest character, and his practical inferences from the Cyrenaic principles were destructive alike to goodness and happiness. The latter he said could not be the aim of man, because it is not attainable, and therefore concluded that the wise man's only object should be to free himself from inconvenience, thereby reducing the whole of human life to mere sensual pleasure. Since, too, every man is sufficient to himself, all external goods were rejected as not being true sources of pleasure, and therefore all the domestic and benevolent affections. Hence the sage ought to regard nothing but himself; action is quite indifferent; and if action, so also is life, which, therefore, is in no way more desirable than death. This statement is, however, less strong than that of Cicero,^[2] who tells us that Hegesias wrote a book called Death by Starvation (Greek: ἀποκαρτερῶν), in which a man who has resolved to starve himself is introduced as representing to his friends that death is actually more to be desired than life, and that the gloomy descriptions of human misery which this work contained were so overpowering, that they drove many persons to commit suicide, in consequence of which the author received the surname of Death-persuader (Peisithanatos). This book was published at Alexandria, where he was, in consequence, forbidden to teach by king Ptolemy II Philadelphus (285-246 BC).

Hegesias of Cyrene, whose ruler may have been Magas of Cyrene, an apparent recipient of Buddhist missionnaries from the Indian king Ashoka according to the latter's Edicts, is sometimes thought to have been influenced by Buddhist teachings.^[3] Jean-Marie Guyau also paralleled his teachings to Buddhism.^[4]

Diogenes Laërtius describes the doctrine of Hegesias in Lives of Eminent Philosophers:

"But the philosophers who were called Hegesiaci, adopted the same chief goods, pleasure and pain; and they denied that there was any such thing as gratitude, or friendship, or beneficence, because we do not choose any of those things for their own sake, but on account of the use of which they are, and on account of these other things which cannot subsist without them. But they teach that complete happiness cannot possibly exist; for that the body is full of many sensations, and that the mind sympathizes with the body, and is troubled when that is troubled, and also that fortune prevents many things which we cherished in anticipation; so that for all these reasons, perfect happiness eludes our grasp. Moreover, that both life and death are desirable. They also say that there is nothing naturally pleasant or unpleasant, but that owing to want, or rarity, or satiety, some men are pleased and some vexed; and that wealth and poverty have no influence at all on pleasure, for that rich men are not affected by pleasure in a different manner from poor men. In the same way they say that slavery and freedom are things indifferent, if measured by the standard of pleasure, and nobility and baseness of birth, and glory and infamy. They add that, for the foolish man it is expedient to live, but to the wise man it is a matter of indifference; and that the wise man will do everything for his own sake; for that he will not consider any one else of equal importance with himself; and he will see that if he were to obtain ever such great advantages from any one else, they would not be equal to what he could himself bestow. They excluded the sensations, inasmuch as they had no certain knowledge about them; but they recommended the doing of everything which appeared consistent with reason.
They asserted also that errors ought to meet with pardon; for that a man did not err intentionally, but because he was influenced by some external circumstance; and that one ought not to hate a person who has erred, but only to teach him better. They likewise said that the wise man would not be so much absorbed in the pursuit of what is good, as in the attempt to avoid what is bad, considering the chief good to be living free from all trouble and pain: and that this end was attained best by those who looked upon the efficient causes of pleasure as indifferent."

– Diogenes Laërtius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers, Life of Arisippus, IX.^[5]

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This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology by William Smith (1870).