In this, they may have influenced early Jewish and Christian monastics. Alexander asked if there was anything he could do for him. Diogenes just asked him to move out of the sun. Originally from Cyrene on the north coast of Africa, he returned there to found his own school, where he taught the philosophy of hedonism. Whatever we do, we do to gain pleasure or to avoid pain.
Pleasure is the only good, and the achievement of pleasure the only virtue.
Morality is only a matter of culture and customs and laws, something we now call ethical relativism. Further, science, art, civilization in general, are good only to the extent that they are useful in producing pleasure. Note, however, that Aristuppus also taught that some pleasures are higher than others, and that we should be slaves to none of them. He was equally cheerful in good times and in poverty, and despised useless displays of wealth. She wrote 40 books herself and was honored by the city of Cyrene with the title Light of Hellas.