Diogenes
Diogenes of Sinope | |
---|---|
Born | 412 or 404 BC
|
Died | 323 BC (aged 81 or 89) |
Era | Ancient Greek philosophy |
Region | Western philosophy |
School | Cynicism |
Notable students | Crates of Thebes |
Notable ideas | Cosmopolitanism |
Diogenes (
Diogenes was a controversial figure. He was banished, or he fled, from Sinope over
No authenticated writings of Diogenes survive, but there are some details of his life from anecdotes (
He modeled himself on the example of Heracles, believing that virtue was better revealed in action than in theory. He became notorious for his philosophical stunts, such as carrying a lamp during the day, claiming to be looking for a "man" (often rendered in English as "looking for an honest man,” as Diogenes viewed the people around him as dishonest and irrational). He criticized Plato, disputed his interpretation of Socrates, and sabotaged his lectures, sometimes distracting listeners by bringing food and eating during the discussions. Diogenes was also noted for having mocked Alexander the Great, both in public and to his face when he visited Corinth in 336 BC.[6][7][8]
Life
Nothing is known about Diogenes's early life except that his father, Hicesias, was a banker.[9] It seems likely that Diogenes was also enrolled into the banking business aiding his father.
At some point (the exact date is unknown), Hicesias and Diogenes became involved in a scandal involving the adulteration or debasement of the currency,[10] and Diogenes was exiled from the city and lost his citizenship and all his material possessions.[11][12] This aspect of the story seems to be corroborated by archaeology: large numbers of defaced coins (smashed with a large chisel stamp) have been discovered at Sinope dating from the middle of the 4th century BC, and other coins of the time bear the name of Hicesias as the official who minted them.[13] During this time there was much counterfeit money circulating in Sinope.[11] The coins were deliberately defaced in order to render them worthless as legal tender.[11] Sinope was being disputed between pro-Persian and pro-Greek factions in the 4th century, and there may have been political rather than financial motives behind the act.
Athens
According to one story,[12] Diogenes went to the Oracle at Delphi to ask for her advice and was told that he should "deface the currency". Following the debacle in Sinope, Diogenes decided that the oracle meant that he should deface the political currency rather than actual coins. He traveled to Athens and made it his life's goal to challenge established customs and values. He argued that instead of being troubled about the true nature of evil, people merely rely on customary interpretations. Diogenes arrived in Athens with a slave named Manes who escaped from him shortly thereafter. With characteristic humor, Diogenes dismissed his ill fortune by saying, "If Manes can live without Diogenes, why not Diogenes without Manes?"[14] Diogenes would mock such a relation of extreme dependency. He found the figure of a master who could do nothing for himself contemptibly helpless. He was attracted by the ascetic teaching of Antisthenes, a student of Socrates. When Diogenes asked Antisthenes to mentor him, Antisthenes ignored him and reportedly "eventually beat him off with his staff". Diogenes responded, "Strike, for you will find no wood hard enough to keep me away from you, so long as I think you've something to say." Diogenes became Antisthenes's pupil, despite the brutality with which he was initially received.[15] Whether the two ever really met is still uncertain,[16][17][18] but he surpassed his master in both reputation and the austerity of his life. He considered his avoidance of earthly pleasures a contrast to and commentary on contemporary Athenian behaviors. This attitude was grounded in a disdain for what he regarded as the folly, pretence, vanity, self-deception, and artificiality of human conduct.
The stories told of Diogenes illustrate the logical consistency of his character. He inured himself to the weather by living in a clay wine jar
Diogenes had nothing but disdain for
Corinth
According to a story which seems to have originated with
It was in Corinth that
Death
There are conflicting accounts of Diogenes's death. His contemporaries alleged that he held his breath until he died, although other accounts of his death say he became ill from eating
Philosophy
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. Fifty-one writings of Diogenes survive as part of the spurious Cynic epistles, though he is reported to have authored over ten books and seven tragedies that do not survive.[49] Cynic ideas are inseparable from Cynic practice; therefore what is known about Diogenes is contained in anecdotes concerning his life and sayings attributed to him in a number of scattered classical sources.
Many anecdotes of Diogenes refer to his dog-like behavior and his praise of a dog's virtues. It is not 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. When asked why he was called a dog he replied, "I fawn on those who give me anything, I yelp at those who refuse, and I set my teeth in rascals."[19] One explanation offered in ancient times for why the Cynics were called dogs was that Antisthenes taught in the Cynosarges gymnasium at Athens.[50] The word Cynosarges means the place of the white dog. Later Cynics also sought to turn the word to their advantage, as a later commentator explained:
There are four reasons why the Cynics are so named. First because of the indifference of their way of life, for they make a cult of indifference and, like dogs, eat and make love in public, go barefoot, and sleep in tubs and at crossroads. The second reason is that the dog is a shameless animal, and they make a cult of shamelessness, not as being beneath modesty, but as superior to it. The third reason is that the dog is a good guard, and they guard the tenets of their philosophy. The fourth reason is that the dog is a discriminating animal which can distinguish between its friends and enemies. So do they recognize as friends those who are suited to philosophy, and receive them kindly, while those unfitted they drive away, like dogs, by barking at them.[51]
Diogenes believed human beings live hypocritically and would do well to study the dog. Besides performing natural body functions in public with ease, a dog will eat anything and makes no fuss about where to sleep. Dogs live in the present and have no use for pretentious philosophy. They know instinctively who is friend and who is foe.
Diogenes stated that "other dogs bite their enemies, I bite my friends to save them."[52] 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."[53] Although Socrates had previously identified himself as belonging to the world, rather than a city,[54] Diogenes is credited with the first known use of the word "cosmopolitan". When he was asked from where he came, he replied, "I am a citizen of the world (cosmopolites)".[55] This was a radical claim in a world where a man's identity was intimately tied to his citizenship of a particular city-state. As an exile and an outcast, a man with no social identity, Diogenes made a mark on his contemporaries.
Legacy
Depictions in art
Both in ancient and in modern times, Diogenes's 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. In Raphael's fresco The School of Athens, a lone reclining figure in the foreground represents Diogenes.[56]
The many allusions to dogs in Shakespeare's Timon of Athens are references to the school of Cynicism that could be interpreted as suggesting a parallel between the misanthropic hermit, Timon, and Diogenes; but Shakespeare would have had access to Michel de Montaigne's essay, "Of Democritus and Heraclitus", which emphasised their differences: Timon actively wishes men ill and shuns them as dangerous, whereas Diogenes esteems them so little that contact with them could not disturb him.[57] "Timonism" is in fact often contrasted with "Cynicism": "Cynics saw what people could be and were angered by what they had become; Timonists felt humans were hopelessly stupid & uncaring by nature and so saw no hope for change."[58]
The philosopher's name was adopted by the fictional
Psychology
Diogenes's name has been applied to a
References
- ^ Laërtius 1925, §79
- ^ Diogenes of Sinope Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. By Julie Piering. Downloaded 14 June 2022.
- ^ Diogenes Laërtius, vi. 6, 18, 21; Dio Chrysostom, Orations, viii. 1–4; Aelian, x. 16; Stobaeus, Florilegium, 13.19
- ^ IEP
- ^ ISBN 9780520258358. Archivedfrom the original on 2017-04-29. Retrieved 2016-02-23.
- ^ Laërtius 1925, §32; Plutarch, Alexander, 14, On Exile, 15.
- ^ a b Plutarch, Alexander 14
- ^ ISBN 978-0-253-34526-4.
- ^ (Laërtius 1925, §20). A trapezites was a banker/money-changer who could exchange currency, arrange loans, and was sometimes entrusted with the minting of currency.
- ^ Navia, Diogenes the Cynic, p. 226: "The word paracharaxis can be understood in various ways such as the defacement of currency or the counterfeiting of coins or the adulteration of money."
- ^ a b c Examined Lives from Socrates to Nietzsche by James Miller p. 76
- ^ a b Laërtius 1925, §20–21
- ^ C. T. Seltman, Diogenes of Sinope, Son of the Banker Hikesias, in Transactions of the International Numismatic Congress 1936 (London 1938).
- ^ Laërtius 1925, §55; Seneca, De Tranquillitate Animi, 8.7.; Aelian, Varia Historia, 13.28.
- ^ Laërtius 1925, §21; Aelian, Varia Historia, 10.16.; Jerome, Adversus Jovinianum, 2.14.
- ^ Long 1996, p. 45
- ^ Dudley 1937, p. 2
- ^ Prince 2005, p. 77
- ^ a b Examined Lives from Socrates to Nietzsche by James Miller p. 78
- ^ Laërtius 1925, §23 ; Jerome, Adversus Jovinianum, 2.14.
- ^ Examined lives from Socrates to Nietzsche by James Miller
- ^ Laërtius 1925, §37; Seneca, Epistles, 90.14.; Jerome, Adversus Jovinianum, 2.14.
- ^ Laërtius 1925, §41
- ^ "Diogenis Laertius 6".
- ^ Laërtius 1925, §32
- ^ Laërtius 1925, §58, 69. Eating in public places was considered bad manners.
- ^ Laërtius 1925, §46
- ^ Dio Chrysostom, Or. 8.36; Julian, Orations, 6.202c.
- ^ Laërtius 1925, §34–35; Epictetus, Discourses, iii.2.11.
- ^ Benjamin Lee Todd, 'Apuleios Florida:A commentary, 2012, p132
- ^ a b Examined Lives from Socrates to Nietzsche by James Miller p. 80
- ^ Laërtius 1925, §24
- ^ Plato, Apology Archived 2009-09-24 at the Wayback Machine, 41e.
- ^ Xenophon, Apology Archived 2009-09-24 at the Wayback Machine, 1.
- ^ Laërtius 1925, §54 ; Aelian, Varia Historia, 14.33.
- ISBN 9780791422717.
- ^ Laërtius 1925, §40
- ^ Laërtius 1925, §29
- ^ Laërtius 1925, §30–31
- ^ "Diogenes of Sinope". Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 2006-04-26. Archived from the original on 2011-11-03. Retrieved 2011-11-13.
- ^ Dio Chrysostom, Or. 8.10
- ^ Lucian (1905), "3", How to Write History
- ^ Laërtius 1925, §38; Cicero, Tusculanae Quaestiones, 5.32.; Plutarch, Alexander, 14, On Exile, 15; Dio Chrysostom, Or. 4.14
- ^ Laërtius 1925, §76; Athenaeus, 8.341.
- ^ Laërtius 1925, §77
- ^ Cicero, Tusculanae Quaestiones, 1.43.
- ^ Laërtius 1925, §78; Greek Anthology, 1.285.; Pausanias, 2.2.4.
- Diogenes Laërtius vi. 79, citing Demetrius of Magnesia as his source. It is also reported by the Suda, Diogenes δ1143.
- ^ Laërtius 1925, §80
- ^ Laërtius 1925, §13. Cf. The Oxford Companion to Classical Literature, 2nd edition, p. 165.
- ^ Scholium on Aristotle's Rhetoric, quoted in Dudley 1937, p. 5
- ^ Diogenes of Sinope, quoted by Stobaeus, Florilegium, iii. 13. 44.
- ^ Laërtius 1925, §44
- ^ Cicero, Tusculanae Quaestiones, 5.37.; Plutarch, On Exile, 5.; Epictetus, Discourses, i.9.1.
- ^ Laërtius 1925, §63
- ^ Michelangelo and the Pope's Ceiling, by Ross King
- ISBN 0-631-22632-X, pp. 443–44.
- ISBN 1-56097-035-9, p. 23.
- ISBN 978-1-78131-404-3.
- PMID 15538307.
- ^ Navia, Diogenes the Cynic, p. 31
Sources
- Desmond, William D. 2008. Cynics. Acumen / University of California Press.
- Dudley, Donald R. (1937). A History of Cynicism from Diogenes to the 6th Century A.D. Cambridge.
- Laërtius, Diogenes; Plutarch (1979). Herakleitos & Diogenes. Translated by Guy Davenport. Bolinas, California: Grey Fox Press. ISBN 978-0-912516-36-3.
(Contains 124 sayings of Diogenes) - Lives of the Eminent Philosophers. Vol. 2:6. Translated by Hicks, Robert Drew(Two volume ed.). Loeb Classical Library.
- ISBN 978-0-520-21645-7.
- Navia, Luis E. (2005). Diogenes the Cynic : the war against the world. Amherst, NY: Humanity Books. ISBN 9781591023203.
- Prince, Susan (2005). "Socrates, Antisthenes, and the Cynics". In Ahbel-Rappe, Sara; Kamtekar, Rachana (eds.). A Companion to Socrates. Blackwell Publishing. ISBN 978-1-4051-0863-8.
- ISBN 978-0-8166-1586-5.
Further reading
- Cutler, Ian (2005). Cynicism from Diogenes to Dilbert. Jefferson, Va.: McFarland & Company, Inc. ISBN 978-0-7864-2093-3.
- Mazella, David (2007). The making of modern cynicism. Charlottesville, Va.: University of Virginia Press. ISBN 978-0-8139-2615-5.
- Navia, Luis E. (1996). Classical cynicism : a critical study. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. ISBN 978-0-313-30015-8.
- Navia, Luis E. (1998). Diogenes of Sinope : the man in the tub. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. ISBN 978-0-313-30672-3.
- Hard, Robin (2012). Diogenes the Cynic: Sayings and Anecdotes, With Other Popular Moralists, Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-958924-1
- Roubineau, Jean-Manuel; DeBevoise, Malcolm; Mitsis, Philip (2023). The dangerous life and ideas of Diogenes the Cynic. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780197666357.
- Shea, Louisa (2010). The cynic enlightenment : Diogenes in the salon. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 978-0-8018-9385-8.
External links
- "Diogenes of Sinope". Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
- Lives & Writings on the Cynics, directory of literary references to Ancient Cynics
- A day with Diogenes
- Diogenes The Dog from Millions of Mouths
- Diogenes of Sinope
- James Grout: Diogenes the Cynic, part of the Encyclopædia Romana