Aristippus

Born in Cyrene around 435 BCE, Aristippus came to Athens and became a pupil of Socrates. But he peeled off from the master's path, developing a philosophy that put pleasure at the center: life's goal was to adapt circumstances to yourself, stay in control through hardship and wealth alike, and never let anything own you - "I possess, I am not possessed," he said. The stance put him at odds with Socrates and the other students, who saw hedonism as a betrayal. He founded the Cyrenaic school around this vision of ethical hedonism. Late in life, he named his daughter Arete his intellectual heir over his two sons; she and her son, Aristippus the Younger, systematized his teachings and carried the school forward after his death around 356 BCE.