Aristippus, a Greek philosopher, disciple of Socrates, born in Cyrene, flourished about 380 B. C. He was luxurious, sensual, and avaricious, and prided himself on extracting pleasure from both prosperity and adversity, and controlling them alike. His conversation was witty and agreeable. He is said to have incurred the dislike of Plato and Xenophon, who accordingly speak of him slightingly. He spent a part of his life at the court of Dionysius the Elder of Syracuse. His doctrine, called from his birthplace the Cyrenaic philosophy, was reduced to a system by his grandson, Aris-tippus the younger. It pronounces pleasure the chief good, and pain the chief evil - the former a moderate, the latter a violent motion of the soul. Pleasures differ only in their degree of purity. Actions are to be judged good or bad by their results; and in forming a judgment the only authorities are law and custom. Whatever conduces to pleasure is accounted virtue; but virtue is regarded as a quality of mind rather than of the body, since bodily pleasure is valued for the sake of the mental state it produces.

A subject becomes cognizant of objects only through the medium of impressions; the only existences are states of mind; and man is the measure of all things.