Everything about Diogenes Of Sinope totally explained
Diogenes (
Diogenes o Sinopeus) "the
Cynic",
Greek philosopher, was born in
Sinope (modern day
Sinop, Turkey) about
412 BC (according to other sources
404 BC), and died in
323 BC, at
Corinth. Details of his life come in the form of anecdotes (
chreia), especially from
Diogenes Laërtius, in his book
Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers.
Diogenes of Sinope is said to have been a disciple of
Antisthenes, who (according to
Plato's
Phaedo) was present at the death of
Socrates. Diogenes, a beggar who made his home in the streets of
Athens, made a virtue of extreme poverty. He taught contempt for human achievements; his was a relentless campaign to debunk social values and institutions.
Dog theme
Many anecdotes of Diogenes refer to his doglike behavior, and his praise of a dog's virtues. It isn't known whether Diogenes was insulted with the epithet "doggish" and made a virtue of it, or whether he first took up the dog theme himself. The modern terms
cynic and
cynical derive from the Greek word
kynikos, the
adjective form of
kyon, meaning dog . Diogenes believed human beings live artificially and hypocritically and would do well to study the dog. Besides performing natural bodily functions in public without unease, a dog will eat anything, and make no fuss about where to sleep. Dogs live in the present without anxiety, and have no use for the pretensions of abstract philosophy. In addition to these virtues, dogs are thought to know instinctively who is friend and who is foe. Unlike human beings who either dupe others or are duped, dogs will give an honest bark at the truth.
Diogenes was a self-appointed public scold whose mission was to demonstrate to the ancient Greeks that civilization is regressive. He taught by living example that wisdom and happiness belong to the man who is independent of society. Diogenes scorned not only family and political social organization, but property rights and reputation. The most shocking feature of his philosophy is his rejection of normal ideas about human decency. Exhibitionist and philosopher, Diogenes is said to have eaten (and, once, masturbated) in the marketplace, urinated on some people who insulted him, defecated in the
theatre, and pointed at people with his
middle finger. Sympathizers considered him a devotee of reason and an exemplar of honesty. Detractors have said he was an obnoxious beggar and an offensive grouch.
Despite having apparently nothing but disdain for
Plato and his abstract philosophy, Diogenes bears striking resemblance to the character of
Socrates. He shared Socrates' belief that he could function as doctor to men's souls and improve them morally, while at the same time holding contempt for their obtuseness. Plato once described Diogenes as "a Socrates gone mad."
Life
In Athens
One of the most important anecdotes about Diogenes suggests that he was exiled from Sinope for "adulterating the coinage". In his new home,
Athens, Diogenes' mission became the metaphorical adulterating/debasing of the "coinage" of custom. Custom, he alleged, was the false coin of human morality. Instead of being troubled by what is really evil, people make a big fuss over what is merely conventionally evil. This distinction between nature ("
physis") and custom ("
nomos") is a favorite theme of ancient Greek philosophy, and one that Plato takes up in
The Republic, in the legend of the
Ring of Gyges.
Diogenes is alleged to have gone to Athens with a slave named Manes who abandoned him shortly thereafter. With characteristic humour, Diogenes dismissed his ill fortune by saying, "If Manes can live without Diogenes, why not Diogenes without Manes?" Diogenes would be consistent in making fun of such a relation of extreme dependency. He would particularly find the master, who could do nothing for himself, contemptibly helpless. We are told that attracted by the
ascetic teaching of
Antisthenes, a student of Socrates, Diogenes became his pupil, despite the brutality with which he was received, and rapidly surpassed his master both in reputation and in the austerity of his life. Unlike the other citizens of Athens, he avoided earthly pleasures. This attitude was grounded in a great disdain for what he perceived as the folly, pretense, vanity, social climbing, self-deception, and artificiality of much human conduct.
The stories told of Diogenes illustrate the logical consistency of his character. He inured himself to the vicissitudes of weather by living in a tub belonging to the temple of
Cybele. He destroyed the single wooden bowl he possessed on seeing a peasant boy drink from the hollow of his hands. He once
masturbated in the
Agora; when rebuked for doing so, he replied, "If only it was as easy to soothe my hunger by rubbing my belly." Diogenes looked for an honest man and reputedly found nothing but rascals and scoundrels.
When Plato gave Socrates's
definition of man as "featherless bipeds" and was much praised for the definition, Diogenes plucked a
chicken and brought it into Plato's
Academy, saying, "This is Plato's man." After this incident, "with broad flat
nails" was added to Plato's definition.
In Corinth
According to a story which seems to have originated with
Menippus of Gadara, Diogenes was once on a voyage to
Aegina, he was captured by
pirates and sold as a
slave in
Crete to a
Corinthian named Xeniades. Being asked his trade, he replied that he knew no trade but that of governing men, and that he wished to be sold to a man who needed a master. As tutor to Xeniades' two sons, he lived in Corinth for the rest of his life, which he devoted entirely to preaching the doctrines of virtuous self-control.
At the
Isthmian Games, he lectured to large audiences. It may have been at one of these festivals that he met
Alexander the Great. The story goes that while Diogenes was relaxing in the sunlight one morning, Alexander, thrilled to meet the famous philosopher, asked if there was any favour he might do for him. Diogenes replied, "Stand out of my sunlight." Alexander still declared, "If I were not Alexander, then I should wish to be Diogenes." (In another account, Alexander found the philosopher rummaging through a pile of human bones. Diogenes explained, "I am searching for the bones of your father but can't distinguish them from those of a slave.")
Although most of the stories about him living in a tub are located in Athens, there are some accounts of him living in a tub near the
Craneum gymnasium in Corinth:
A report that Philip was marching on the town had thrown all Corinth into a bustle; one was furbishing his arms, another wheeling stones, a third patching the wall, a fourth strengthening a battlement, every one making himself useful somehow or other. Diogenes having nothing to do - of course no one thought of giving him a job - was moved by the sight to gather up his philosopher's cloak and begin rolling his tub-dwelling energetically up and down the Craneum; an acquaintance asked, and got, the explanation: "I don't want to be thought the only idler in such a busy multitude; I'm rolling my tub to be like the rest."
Death
There are numerous accounts of Diogenes' death. He is alleged variously to have held his breath, to have become ill from eating raw octopus, and to have suffered an infected dog bite. When asked how he wished to be buried, he left instructions to be thrown outside the city wall so wild animals could feast on his body. When asked if he minded this, he said, "Not at all, as long as you provide me with a stick to chase the creatures away!" When asked how he could use the stick since he'd lack awareness, he replied "If I lack awareness, then why should I care what happens to me when I'm dead?" At the end, Diogenes made fun of people's excessive concern with the "proper" treatment of the dead. The Corinthians erected to his memory a pillar on which rested a dog of
Parian marble.
Ideas
Along with
Antisthenes and
Crates of Thebes, Diogenes is considered one of the founders of
Cynicism. The ideas of Diogenes, like those of most other Cynics, must be arrived at indirectly. No writings of Diogenes survived even though he's reported to have authored a number of books. Cynic ideas are inseparable from Cynic practice; therefore what we know about Diogenes is contained in anecdotes concerning his life and sayings attributed to him in a number of scattered classical sources. None of these sources is definitive and all contribute to a "tradition" that shouldn't be confused with factual biography.
It isn't known, for example, whether Diogenes made a virtue of naked survival out of necessity or whether he really preferred poverty and homelessness. In any case, Diogenes did "make a case" for benefits of a reduced lifestyle. He apparently proved to the satisfaction of the
Stoics who came after him that happiness has nothing whatever to do with a person's material circumstances. The stoics developed this theme, but made it benign.
Epictetus, for example, preached the virtue of modesty and inoffensiveness, but maintained that misfortune is good for the development of strong character.
Diogenes maintained that all the artificial growths of society were incompatible with happiness and that morality implies a return to the simplicity of nature. So great was his austerity and simplicity that the
Stoics would later claim him to be a wise man or "sophos". In his words, "Humans have complicated every simple gift of the gods." Although
Socrates had previously identified himself as belonging to the world, rather than a city, Diogenes is credited with the first known use of the word "
cosmopolitan". When he was asked where he came from, he replied, "I am a citizen of the world (
cosmopolites)". This was a radical claim in a world where a man's identity was intimately tied to his citizenship in a particular city state. An exile and an outcast, a man with no social identity, Diogenes made a mark on his contemporaries. His story, however uncertain the details, continues to fascinate students of human nature.
Art and popular culture
Both in ancient and in modern times, his personality has appealed strongly to sculptors and to painters. Ancient busts exist in the museums of the
Vatican, the
Louvre, and the
Capitol. The interview between Diogenes and Alexander is represented in an ancient marble bas-relief found in the
Villa Albani.
Rubens,
Jordaens,
Steen,
Van der Werff,
Jeaurat,
Salvator Rosa,
Nicolas Poussin,
Karel Dujardin, and
Castiglione, have painted scenes from his life.
Diogenes is referred to in
Anton Chekhov's story
Ward No. 6;
William Blake's
The Marriage of Heaven and Hell;
Francois Rabelais'
Gargantua and Pantagruel; as well as in the first sentence of
Søren Kierkegaard's novelistic treatise
Repetition. He is the primary model for the philosopher Dydactylos in
Terry Prachett's
Small Gods. He is mimicked by a beggar-spy in
Jacqueline Carey's
Kushiel's Scion and paid tribute to with a costume in a party by the main character in its sequel,
Kushiel's Justice. The character Lucy Snowe in
Charlotte Bronte's novel
Villette is given the nickname Diogenes. Diogenes also features in Part Four of
Elizabeth Smart's
By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept. He is a figure in
Seamus Heaney's
The Haw Lantern. In the Graphic Novel of
Neil Gaiman's
Neverwhere, the Marquis de Carabas refers to Diogenes as his patron.
He appears in the animated series
Reign: the Conqueror where he plays a more pivotal role in the life of
Alexander the Great. He is referenced in the eleventh episode of
Kino's Journey.
He is mentioned in the songs "Start Wearing Purple" by
Gogol Bordello, "Get Off" by
Bad Religion, "To Lanterns, Denver, and One Last Lament" by
Defiance, Ohio (band), and "Oh, Diogenes!" from the
Rodgers and Hart musical
The Boys From Syracuse.
In an episode of the TV show M*A*S*H, Radar is carrying two lamps. Hawkeye says, "Ah, a diminuitive Diogenes," and Trapper says, "Looking for
two good men, Radar?"
The Diogenes Club
The philosopher lent his name to the fictional
Diogenes Club, an organization that
Sherlock Holmes' brother
Mycroft Holmes belongs to in the story
The Greek Interpreter by
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The group is the focus of a number of Holmes
pastiches by
Kim Newman.
Diogenes and contemporary theory
Diogenes is discussed in a 1983 book by German philosopher
Peter Sloterdijk (English language publication in 1987). In his
Critique of Cynical Reason, Diogenes is used as an example of Sloterdijk’s idea of the “kynical” — in which personal degradation is used for purposes of community comment or censure. Calling the practice of this tactic “kynismos,” Sloterdijk explains that the kynical actor actually embodies the message he/she is trying to convey. The goal here's typically a false regression that mocks authority — especially authority that the kynical actor considers corrupt, suspect, or unworthy.
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