In an earlier post I briefly outlined the orthodox Cyrenaic philosophical scheme, drawn primarily from the example of Aristippus himself in regards to ethical and sentimental content, supported by the epistemological developments contributed primarily by his grandson, the Metrodidact. Though not entirely rigorous in terms of historical accuracy (we have a pastiche outlining the basic commitments of the school, drawn from various anecdotes and doxographies, often hostile), nevertheless, I believe it is entirely within the pragmatic spirit of early Cyrenaicism and represents the school’s primary concerns and considerations. I find it valuable to reference a broad outline, focusing on the practical implications of each philosophical point, in order to better orient ourselves and structure our pursuits. After all, what’s of utmost importance is making our individual lives pleasant, not constructing an exhaustive ideology. Such an attitude of indifference to speculative constructs is a more authentic reflection of early Cyrenaicism than blind submission to an abstract theory. To the degree the ancient Cyrenaics involve themselves in eristics, they are entirely guided by affective commitments, and once satisfied of having reached greater consistency, or fended off some plausible criticism, they cease elaborating.
With this in mind, I’d like to attempt a similar exposition of Walter Pater’s New Cyrenaicism, briefly organising its additional dimensions with reference to the underlying structure of the orthodox view. As a refined modern aesthete, Pater inventively commandeers the philosophical material of his spiritual predecessors and renovates the existing elements to suit his tastes. These updates have much to recommend them for a sympathetic contemporary reader. An important consideration rests with the pre-existing sensibilities of the would-be Cyrenaic. It’s worth asking yourself, before weighing the content, if your concerns are our concerns, your values our values. Otherwise, you may find more appeal in competing schools, (may I recommend Epicureanism as an outstanding alternative?) and if our brethren provide you with the fulfilment and happiness you are seeking, all the better.
Something interesting to note is that, as the novel illustrating the development of New Cyrenaicism progresses, the protagonist comes to adopt, not merely the “first lesson” of Heraclitus - the metaphysical grounding in constant renewal for his scrupulous commitment to immediate experience - but also embraces something of his pantheistic organizing principle, the logos. I will have more to say regarding the intersection of Heraclitean metaphysics with Cyrenaic epistemology at a later date, but, a word of caution: while our tacit skepticism regarding ontological commitments does not prohibit sweeping generalizations from engulfing experiential phenomena, which includes the observation of causal regularity, we should properly subordinate this conceptual investigation to its appropriate position — that is, facilitating the pleasurable appreciation of some aspect of our waking world, which may otherwise remain neglected. I therefore pull short here of describing Marius’ concession to the notion of a universal “unfailing companion” amid his contact with early Christianity. This development, though fascinating, represents a divergence away from our core concerns as Cyrenaics. To interested readers, I recommend the second volume of Marius: The Epicurean.
I now present Walter Pater’s New Cyrenaicism:
Epistemology:
- Purgative Skepticism: Acquiesence to the Heraclitean flux of impressions justifies withdrawal of interest from universal “objective” knowledge, beyond that which can be accessed through sense-perception, eliminating concerns with vast speculative metaphysics and intrinsic axiological imperatives. Consequently, this drily practical skepticism induces an anti-metaphysical metaphysic, disabused of the ambition to pass beyond “the flaming ramparts of the world”
- Empiricist Idealism: Complete fidelity to immediate experience — direct sensation — as the only criteria of truth. Constructing the world in great measure from within, by exercising meditative powers of selective focus upon our impressions, according to a vein of subjectivist philosophy with the individual for its standard, we are unable to wholly accept the valuations of others without personal verification. The object, the experience, as it will be known to memory, is really from first to last the chief point of consideration in the conduct of life.
- Presentism: The present moment alone is truly real, and we yield to its improvement, excluding all embarrassment alike of regret for the past and calculation for the future, as far as possible. The result of our purgative skepticism is the acknowledgement that what is secure in our existence is but the sharp apex of the present moment between two hypothetical eternities, and all that is real in our experience but a series of fleeting impression.
- Intellectual Integrity: Insight, free from ghostly idols, sends us back to experience, to the world of concrete impressions, with a liberated soul. With sober discretion of one’s thoughts, a sustained habit of meditation, the sense of the negative conclusions reached above enables us to concentrate ourselves upon what is immediately here and now, providing a peculiar manner of intellectual confidence as we live intently in the visible world.
- Aesthetic-Moral Idealism: Projecting and living a vision of the successful life. We adorn and beautify, in scrupulous self-respect, our souls, and whatever our souls touch upon — these wonderful bodies, these material dwelling-places through which the shadows pass together for a while, the very raiments we wear, our very pastimes and the intercourse of society. In other words, we learn and practice character, health, style, and sociability. True aesthetic culture is realizable as a new form of the contemplative life, founded on the vision of perfect men and things. Whatever form of human life which may be heroic, impassioned, ideal: these are the criterion of values. Skilled cultivation of life, of experience, of opportunity. Dilligent promotion of the capacity of the eye, to be “made perfect by the love of visible beauty”. The soul, which can make no sincere claim to have apprehended anything beyond the veil of immediate experience, yet never loses a sense of happiness in conforming to the highest moral ideal it can clearly define for itself.
- Unitemporal Pleasure: Imperative to enliven each passing moment, in order to enter the “ideal now”. Much of the pleasant life is lived, also, in reminiscence, and it is proper to the economy of conduct to ask what value current action will hold upon reflection, once it has passed. Boundless appetite for experience, for adventure, whether physical or of the spirit. Follow the percept: Be perfect in regard to what is here and now; the precept of “culture”, as it is called, or of a complete education. To us, at least, in whom the fleeting impressions — faces, voices, material sunshine — are very real and imperious, we might well set ourselves to the consideration, how such actual moments as they pass might be made to yield their utmost, by the most dexterous training of capacity. Arresting the desirable moments as they pass, and prolonging their life a little. — To live in the concrete. To be sure, at least, of one’s hold upon that. This philosophic scheme is but the reflection of the data of sense, and chiefly of sight.
- Health: Vivid sense of the value of mental and bodily sanity; recognition of the beauty, even for the aesthetic sense, of mere bodily health. Honor the restorative benefits of sleep.
- Adaptability: We maintain harmony with the change and motion inherent in existence by constantly renewed mobility of character.
- Hedonic Economy: The deeper wisdom has ever been, with a sense of economy, with a jealous estimate of gain and loss, to use life, not as the means to some problematic end, but as an end in itself.
- Education and Refinement: Training sensitivity to aesthetic delights, judged based on the virtuous merits regarding their degree, type, and unique sensory impressions with which they affect the individual’s “imaginative reason”. We refine all instruments of inward and outward intuition and impression, developing our capacities, in order to best receive and interact with the “beatific vision” of our experience in the world. This training involves, not the conveyance of doctrine or principles, but rather, the teaching of an art. Education increases one’s capacity for enjoyment
- Temperance: As a means to keeping the eye clean by a sort of exquisite personal alacrity and cleanliness; to meditate upon beautiful visible objects; to avoid jealously everything repugnant to sight. How little any of us really need, when people leave us alone, with the intellectual powers at work serenely. The drops of falling water, a few wild flowers with their priceless fragrance, a few tufts even of half-dead leaves, changing colour in the quiet of a room that has but light and shadow in it; these, for a susceptible mind, might well do duty for all the glory of Augustus.
- Earthen Character: Development generally of the more human and earthly elements of character. Virile consciousness of the realities of life, poetic apprehension, united with something of personal ambition and self-assertion. The earthly end comes like a final revelation of nothing less than the soul’s extinction. To the sentiment of the body, and the affections it defined — the flesh — one must cling; a materialist with the temper of a devotee. Amid abstract metaphysical doubts, as to what might lie one step only beyond that experience, we reinforce the deep original materialism or eathliness of human nature itself, bound so intimately to the sensuous world — let us at least make the most of what is “here and now”.
Relationships:
- Sympathy: Empathetic distaste for causing or witnessing pain/discomfort. An appeal to the aesthetic revulsion caused by the ugliness of suffering, prompting an amelioration of its causes, and an avoidance of behavior which would bring it about. Sympathy for all creatures, something of a religious veneration for life itself. How tenderly—more tenderly than many stricter souls—we might yield to kindly instinct, what fineness of charity in passing judgment on others, what an exquisite conscience of other men’s susceptibilities. We go beyond most people in our care for all weakly creatures; judging, instinctively, that to be but sentient is to possess rights. Are those sufferings, great or little, of more real consequence to others than mine to me?
- Companionship: The pleasant value of association with others. Companionship, indeed, familiarity with others, gifted in this way or that, or at least pleasant, are through one or another long span of life, the chief delight of the journey.
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