Anniceris

Anniceris (Greek: Ἀννίκερις), was an ancient Greek Cyrenaic philosopher, who lived in the late 4th century BC.

He was a disciple of Paraebates, the student of Aristippus, and the Suda says he lived at the time of Alexander the Great (ruled 336–323 BC).^[1] The story that Anniceris ransomed Plato from Dionysius, tyrant of Syracuse for twenty minas,^[2] must refer to an earlier Anniceris, possibly the celebrated charioteer mentioned by Aelian.^[3]

He denied that pleasure was merely the absence of pain, for if so death would be a pleasure; and furthermore he denied that pleasure is the general end of human life. To each separate action there is a particular end, namely the pleasure which actually results from it.

In both these statements he reasserted the principles of Aristippus. However, he differed from Aristippus because he allowed that friendship, patriotism, and similar virtues, were good in themselves; saying that the wise person will derive pleasure from such qualities, even though they cause him occasional trouble, and that a friend should be chosen not only for our own need, but for kindness and natural affection.

He also denied that reason (Greek: ὁ λόγος) alone can secure us from error; the wise person is the person who has acquired a habit of wise action; human wisdom is liable to lapses at any moment.^[4]

References

• This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.