Cyrenaics

I recently changed my "religious views" on my facebook profile from "Esaianism" to "Esaianism (which is, Philosophical Taoism, Cyrenaicism, Epicureanism, Jainism, stirred well)". Epicureanism is doing moderately well as a quasi-religion, and by moderately well I mean that I have met 2 university professors who identify as Epicurean, one of whom was introduced in my class as an Epicurean, and the other, who did the introduction, and who was my Hellenistic philosophy professor, who lists his "religious views" on his facebook profile as Epicureanism. There are also a couple facebook groups dedicated to Epicureanism. I have found only one facebook page dedicated to Cyrenaics, and this was a "Community Page" devoted specifically to Aristippus. All 3 paragraphs of it were lifted straight from Wikipedia. There's nothing wrong with that, of course, but it might be nice for more light to be shed on this stripe of hedonism.

The Cyrenaics start from the Greek ethical commonplace that the highest good is what we all seek for its own sake, and not for the sake of anything else. This they identify as pleasure, because we instinctively seek pleasure for its own sake, and when we achieve pleasure, we want nothing more. Similarly, pain is bad because we shun it.

In this sense, they are like the other classical school of hedonism, Epicureanism. The two schools differ, however, on how exactly to define "pleasure".

Pleasure and pain are both ‘movements,’ according to the Cyrenaics: pleasure a smooth motion, and pain a rough motion. The absence of either type of motion is an intermediate state which is neither pleasurable nor painful. This is directed against Epicurus’ theory that the homeostatic state of being free of pain, need and worry is itself most pleasant. The Cyrenaics make fun of the Epicurean theory by saying that this state of being free of desires and pain is the condition of a corpse.

Or, as the omniscient Wikipedia puts it:

The Cyrenaics taught that the only intrinsic good is pleasure, which meant not just the absence of pain, but positively enjoyable sensations.

If their reputation is accurate, which it probably isn't, then the Cyrenaics were total nutters. They do, however, contribute something very valuable - the recognition of pleasure as really something, and not just the absence of pain and anxiety.