Arete of Cyrene
4th-century BC Greek philosopher
Arete of Cyrene (; Ancient Greek: Ἀρήτη; fl. 4th century BC) was a Cyrenaic philosopher who lived in Cyrene, Libya. She was the daughter of Aristippus of Cyrene.
Life and teachings
Arete learned philosophy from her father, Aristippus, who had himself learned philosophy from Socrates. Arete, in turn, taught philosophy to her son – Aristippus the Younger – who was nicknamed "Mother-taught" (Greek: μητροδίδακτος).
Arete reportedly took over the leadership of the School of Cyrene upon her father's death. She is mentioned by Diogenes Laërtius, Strabo, Aelius, Clement of Alexandria, Theodoret of Cyrus, Aristocles and in the Suda. Diogenes records that among her pupils were Theodorus the Atheist and Anniceris. While no credible historic source has survived on Arete's teachings, the tenets of the School of Cyrene which her father founded are known. It was one of the first to advance a systematic view on the role of pleasure and pain in human life. The Cyrenaics argued that discipline, knowledge, and virtuous actions are more likely to result in pleasure.
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This entry incorporates text from “Arete of Cyrene” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.