Philosophy was pursued outside the main schools. Pyrrho of Elis (c. 365-c. 270) adopted an extreme
scepticism, holding that our senses are unreliable, that we should commit ourselves to no judgements -
and that tranquillity of mind will supervene upon such a practice. Pyrrho was perhaps influenced by the
Indian ascetics whom he encountered as a member of Alexander's expedition to the East. In his turn he
influenced the Academic scepticism of Arcesilaus. The Cyrenaic sect, founded by Aristippus (c. 430-c.
350), was also of a sceptical inclination: 'they abstained from physics, because its subject-matter was
evidently unknowable; but they studied logic because of its utility'. Their chief doctrine, however, was
ethical: they maintained a radical hedonism, according to which bodily pleasure was the supreme good.
The affinities between Aristippus and Epicurus were often remarked upon.
Aristippus was a pupil of Socrates. So too was Euclides of Megara (c. 435-c. 365). Euclides and his
followers, of whom the most eminent was Stilpo (d.c. 300), were celebrated in their day. They had views
on ethics and on various topics in logic, but little is now known about them. Allied to the Megarians was a
group called the Dialecticians, whose interest centred upon logical paradoxes. Diodorus Cronus (d. c.
284), the leading Dialectician, had an importance we can only dimly discern.
Antisthenes (c. 450-c. 350) was another pupil of Socrates. He and his follower Diogenes of Sinope (d.
323) were the founders of Cynicism. Cynicism was a way of life rather than a theoretical philosophy.
Cynics proclaimed the supreme importance of individual freedom and self-sufficiency; they preached the
'natural' life and rejected with contempt the customs and conventions of society, thinking nothing of
wealth, position, or reputation. They also affected to despise pleasure ('I would rather go mad than enjoy
myself, said Antisthenes). Their ostentatious asceticism was a common spectacle, admired or ridiculed
according to the spectator's taste.