The making of modern cynicism / David Mazella.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction : from the man of reason to the cynical insider -- 1. Diogenes of Sinope and philosophy as a way of life -- 2. Diogenes the cynic as "counsellor" and malcontent in early modern England -- 3. From rude cynics to "cynical revilers" -- 4. The cynic unveiled : innocence, disenchantment, and rationalization in Rousseau -- 5. Edmund Burke and the counter-enlightenment attack on the "philosopher of vanity" -- 6. Cynicism and dandyism -- Epilogue : how not to talk about cynicism : a conclusion, and request for further discussion.

"Once describing a life of exile, self-denial, physical rigor, and mastery of one's desires, cynicism now describes a life of political quietism, passivity, and moral indifference, representing not a weakening of ancient philosophic norms but rather their inversion. In The Making of Modern Cynicism, David Mazella asks: how did ancient Cynic philosophy come to provide a name for its modern, unphilosophical counterpart, and what events caused such a dramatic reversal of cynicism's former meanings? He traces the concept of cynicism from its origins as a philosophical way of life in Greek antiquity through its successive transformations in the early modern and Enlightenment periods and into the nineteenth century when it took its distinctively modern, unreflective form as a variety of disenchantment, disbelief, or distrust."--BOOK JACKET.