After starting his own school, he came to recognize that Socrates was wiser than he. He went over, students and all, to learn from the master. Antisthenes is the founder of cynicism .
Cynicism involves living the simple life in order that the soul can be set free.
It is a back to nature type of philosophy, ala St. Francis of Assisi. By eliminating one s needs and possessions, one can better concentrate on the life of philosophy. Cynicism makes virtue the only good, the only true happiness. Rejecting civilization, cynics tended to withdraw from society, even to live in the desert. In this, they may have influenced early Jewish and Christian monastics.