by 
Anonymous
ANSWERS: 3
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i may be being a bit of a dunce here - but i thought cynics were people who have an overly pessimistic view of life? :-S
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They were a group of Greek philosophers. They held that the purpose of life was to live in virtue and harmony with nature. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cynic Yes, they might be considered a cult (every religion and philosophy is a cult): 1: formal religious veneration : worship 2: a system of religious beliefs and ritual; also : its body of adherents 3: a religion regarded as unorthodox or spurious; also : its body of adherents 4: a system for the cure of disease based on dogma set forth by its promulgator <health cults> 5 a: great devotion to a person, idea, object, movement, or work (as a film or book); especially : such devotion regarded as a literary or intellectual fad b: the object of such devotion c: a usually small group of people characterized by such devotion http://www.merriamwebster.com/cgi-bin/dictionary/cult
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Are you looking for the original definition or the current 21st century definition? If you are looking for the original there is much to find, basically it originated with the term kunikos, which was applied to Antisthenes posthumously. Cynicism denotes a way of living. Understanding the Cynic conception of ethics is that virtue is a life lived in accord with nature. Cynics clearly privilege freedom, but not merely in a personal sense as a kind of negative liberty. Instead, freedom is advocated in three related forms: eleutheria, freedom or liberty, autarkeia, self-sufficiency, and parrhēsia, freedom of speech or frankness. Although, this is a brief explanation more can be found. One would be hard pressed to define this as a cult or religion considering it was a way of life during the period of Socrates; but then one could call Judaism a way of life or religion, Buddhism a way of life or a religion, as well as, Mormonism a way of life or a religion. Many have even placed the word cult on some religions/way of life, out of ignorance or just plan hatred; I guess the same will apply to Cynics.
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