So why not choose to be happy by avoiding vain effort and focusing only on what nature demands, instead of making ourselves miserable with unnecessary exertion? You can even derive pleasure from despising pleasure once you have got used to it. Nothing in life, Diogenes would say, has any chance of success without self-discipline. His purpose was to battle with and overcome unruly emotions, like hunger, greed, lust, and laziness, and in so doing live a life governed by reason. He practiced askeisis or severe disciplines meant to strengthen the will, which included rolling about on hot sands or walking barefoot on snow. Attending one of Plato’s lectures in which the great philosopher categorized man as a “featherless biped,” Diogenes left in disgust and returned with a plucked chicken which he proclaimed “Plato’s man.” Plato in turn referred to Diogenes as “Socrates-gone-mad.”įor Diogenes, philosophy was to be lived, not talked about. But Diogenes was impatient with lectures, theory, science, rhetoric, and other forms of acquired knowledge. Initially he studied under Antisthenes of Athens, who was a disciple of Socrates. One day he saw a child drinking with cupped hands and threw away the vase.ĭespite having no training in philosophy, Diogenes was a man of “considerable literary and philosophical sophistication,” according to Navia. In other words, Diogenes was encouraged to challenge the social norms of the time.Īrriving in Athens penniless and without friends, Diogenes was forced to live the “simple life.” He embraced necessity and turned it into a virtue, reasoning that he was better off “wanting nothing” than were other people who could “never get enough of anything.” A large earthenware cistern or tub became his abode, and his possessions were only what he carried with him: cloak, staff, satchel, and a ceramic vase for drinking. The message he received was to once again “deface the currency” - but this time it a play on words, as the ancient Greek word for “currency” refers not only to coinage, but also to the accepted moral values of society. The story continues with Diogenes arriving in Greece and seeking guidance from the Oracle at Delphi. It is believed that the father was imprisoned, while the son was exiled or fled in disgrace. Apparently he and his son were caught “defacing the currency.” This may mean they were minting coins with less precious metal than what they were supposed to contain, or perhaps they were destroying currency to remove it from circulation for political reasons - the details of what happened are not understood. Diogenes’ father was a banker in charge of the mint for Sinope (a town in northern Turkey). The story of Diogenes emerges from the mists of the distant past, based on scraps of evidence and second-hand accounts, and while little is known for sure, Professor Navia pieces together the clues, assesses their reliability, and provides alternate interpretations. I recently came across a book by Professor Luis Navia of New York Institute of Technology, Diogenes the Critic: The War Against the World, which sheds some interesting light on this question. Source: Wikipediaīrilliant philosopher, shameless exhibitionist, ragamuffin - take your pick, but before we concede to people like Schultz and dismiss the man, we have to ask the question, why is Diogenes still remembered some twenty-four hundred years after his death? You might be familiar with the image of a white-haired man carrying a lamp in daylight, searching for an honest man. Compared to Diogenes, Thoreau was pampered and tame. Known as “The Dog,” Diogenes lived in a tub, begged for food, and went barefoot, haranguing rich and poor alike for their pointless conformity, irrational behavior, and moral bankruptcy. In a New Yorker article last fall, Kathryn Schultz attacked the legacy of Henry David Thoreau, calling Walden’s author “pond scum” and dismissing as unrealistic any political vision built upon his “rugged individualism.” Based on her reaction to Thoreau, she’d likely recoil in horror from Diogenes of Sinope (412-323 BCE), founder of the Cynic school of philosophy in ancient Greece.
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