What is cynicism?

[His Noodly Appendage]

I'm trying to come up with a pithy description. Putting the historical origins aside, I'm groping towards a functional definition - something along the lines of 'preferring minimally-redundant explanatory theories'.

It was encountering discrete mathematics that destroyed the last romantic notion in my head - when I realised that there are only mn functions mapping domain m to range n; no matter how intricate their inner workings, they're just mappings between two sets - and that any two functions that equal to the same mapping are equal to each other.

That realisation solidified a philosophy I'd always more or less subscribed to - that once you've pinned down the precise 'what', the 'why' is mostly irrelevant, and can be replaced with the shortest equivalent path.

Applied to human behaviour, this makes for no soft-focus whatsoever. It's often mistaken for pessimism or misanthropy, but that's not a fair appraisal. The shortest path can lie through the good in people, it's just that it's depressingly rare.

So, um, yeah. Anyone care to take a crack at capturing the notion?

Discuss?

[Preno]

It was encountering discrete mathematics that destroyed the last romantic notion in my head - when I realised that there are only mn functions mapping domain m to range n;You mean nm.

Other than that, I have no idea what you're talking about.

ETA: maybe cynicism is the joy of breaking other people's illusions?

[LoneWolf]

Wow, you are talking WAY over my head HNA. I think I will scurry off back to the circumcision thread where I understand what language you are speaking. :)

[Christina]

I think I have a gut feeling about what you mean but (as usual) it's going to take me a while to try to put words to it. An idea along the lines about how the window dressing between point A and point B doesn't matter much. A to B is A to B regardless of the justifications and meanderings in between. Am I heading in the right direction?

[His Noodly Appendage]

Yep.

I suppose you could think of it as Ockham's Chainsaw. If two theories produce the same predictions, the more complex one is just an obfuscated version of the simpler one.

[His Noodly Appendage]

(oh, and er - thanks, Preno. you're quite right. nm. Brain not work today.)

[Christina]

Yep.

I suppose you could think of it as Ockham's Chainsaw. If two theories produce the same predictions, the more complex one is just an obfuscated version of the simpler one.

In my usual un-academic and cynical way I would probably say "You can come up with all of the fancy justifications and excuses that you like, but you just started out and ended up in the same places as the guy that didn't bother to pretend that he wasn't being a dick. Just admit that you're as selfish as the rest of us and get on with it. I'm not buying the excuse anyway".

[Christina]

I'm still trying to get my brain around how cynicism plays in when A is something that I disapprove of and B is something that I see as good. If I replace my last post with "You can come up with all of the fancy justifications and excuses that you like, but you just started out and ended up in the same places as the guy that didn't bother to pretend that he wasn't being a nice guy. Just admit that you're as unselfish as the rest of us and get on with it. I'm not buying the excuse anyway", I suppose it's still cynicism but it feels more like optimism.

[His Noodly Appendage]

The optimist believes we live in the best of all possible worlds.
The pessimist fears the optimist is right.
The cynic saw that one coming a mile off.

[Christina]

The cynic saw that one coming a mile off.

I find it so much more convenient to be a cynic. I'm often pleasantly surprised but rarely disappointed.

[frazier]

I find it so much more convenient to be a cynic. I'm often pleasantly surprised but rarely disappointed.
Without doing anything pedantic like going to dictionary.com, I would say that cynicism regards any assertion as "more likely to be wrong than right."

"The race is not always to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, but that's the way to bet.” - Damon Runyon

[Christina]

Knowing how HNA thinks he's probably trying to tighten the definition down to an equation and I can feel what he means but my mind is never going to be able express it that way. We often end up at the same place but by completely different means and coming at it from different angles. I can't go where he goes.

I'd call cynicism the triumph of experience over optimism combined with the belief that people's stated motivations and/or intent are quite often not their real ones even when they think they are. It's not necessarily expecting the worst from people as much as it is being skeptical of surface explanations for behavior and the chances for patterns of behavior to change.

[Alex]

I thought that cynicism (at least in its exaggerated form) was a general contempt of current morality.

Diogenes the Cynic was supposed to have demonstrated his love for the simple life and repudiation of civilized customs by living in a barrel.

[David M]

The optimist desires only the best of human nature
The pessimist desires only the worst of human nature
The cynic truly understands human nature - hopes for the best but is prepared for the worst.

[Hevvin Machine]

I'd call cynicism the triumph of experience over optimism combined with the belief that people's stated motivations and/or intent are quite often not their real ones even when they think they are. It's not necessarily expecting the worst from people as much as it is being skeptical of surface explanations for behavior and the chances for patterns of behavior to change. This certainly sounds like a good definition to me.
I think cynicism is one of those words with multiple shades of meaning, largely depending on context. Sort of like that judges definition of pornography, "I know it when I see it". It is such a subtle and abstract concept that there isn't a mathematical model.
Hev

[SallyAnne]

Anyone care to take a crack at capturing the notion?





Disappointed optimism.

[Eudaimonist]

What is cynicism? I just knew you would ask that. Hmph.