First, cynicism, as a school of philosophy in ancient Greece, can be divided into early and late periods, and its representative is diogenes of Sinop. This school of philosophy advocates abstinence, despises worldly wealth and advocates returning to nature. He lives in a bucket and lives a minimum life. Some people laughed at him for living like a dog, hence the name "cynic". Early cynicism was extremely serious, and diogenes was a fierce social critic. He is determined to expose all hypocrisy in the world, pursue real virtue enthusiastically, and pursue spiritual freedom liberated from material desires. The cynics in the later period still despise secular ideas, but they have lost the moral principles on which they depend. It can be said that the early cynicism adhered to the inherent virtues and values and despised the external secular utilitarianism. However, in the end, the word cynicism has just become its opposite: it only recognizes external secular utility and denies internal virtue and value.
To some extent, cynicism is very similar to Zhuangzi's philosophy. There are both early thoughts and late thoughts in Lao Zi and Zhuang Zi's works. It's a pity that diogenes and cynicism were not written in my thesis "Pre-Qin philosophers".
Then look at two extended meanings, cynicism and cynicism. I have always thought that these two kinds of people have the same inner dissatisfaction with the world, that is, the former is critical of everything and the latter is satisfied with everything. I don't think so now. There are essential differences between the two. A cynic is a staunch idealist, and a cynic is an extreme idealist. It is precisely because the ideal is firm that all unreasonable things should be whipped; Because there is no ideal country, it is inevitable that everything will fall into nothingness. Now China's cynicism is dominated by the latter.
"How do we understand that cynicism is complete nihilism? He is cynical. Of course, there are also cynical words and deeds, cynicism and complete nihilism in his bones. There are two ways to understand it accurately. There are two sentences, one is defined in Webster's dictionary, that is, "I believe that all human behaviors are driven by selfishness." This man only believes in selfishness. There is also a famous writer Wilde who famously said that what kind of person is a cynic is that he knows the price of everything, but he doesn't know the value of everything, so it is very accurate for us to understand this word from these levels today. He is a cynic, an out-and-out nihilist, showing some cynicism, but he is not a cynic at heart.