Artful Immorality - Variants of Cynicism: Machiavelli, Gracian, Diderot, Nietzsche

When a term is overused, it tends to fall out of fashion. Cynicism seems to be an exception. Its polytropic versatility apparently prevents any discontinuation of its application. Everyone knows that cynicism denotes that which is deemed deleterious at a given time; and every time will specify its toxicities - the apparent result being the term's non-specificity. This study describes the cynical stance and statement so as to render the term's use scholarly expedient.Close readings of textual sou…