Diogenes the Cynic

1) His Biography and Main Works:

Diogenes was a Greek philosopher who was also known as Diogenes the Cynic. He was one of the founders of the Cynic philosophy, which advocated for the rejection of extravagance and the promotion of “living in virtue.” Diogenes felt that conduct demonstrated virtue more than theory. He lived a life of great poverty, begging for money and sleeping in the markets without proper beds. He frequently disobeyed local laws and conventions, earning him a reputation as a controversial character. He considered himself a global citizen and refused to pledge allegiance to a single country.

He pulled off a number of political stunts, the most well-known of which was carrying a lamp around during the day while pretending to be looking for a “honest man.” He became well known for publicly criticizing Alexander the Great. According to some traditions, he was a disciple of Antisthenes, a philosopher who had studied under Socrates. Pirates kidnapped Diogenes and sold him into slavery. Despite this, he was able to pass on to Crates, his Cynical worldview.

Diogenes was born in Sinope around 412 BC. Hicesias, his father, was a merchant and mintmaster. His family’s background is unknown. He may have also assisted his father in his financial firm. A monetary debasement scandal previously engulfed Diogenes and his father. The exact date of the incident is unknown, and the details surrounding it are as hazy. Some sources indicate that Diogenes was the one who defiled the coinage, while others claim that Hicesias, not Diogenes, was the one who did it. Both Hicesias and Diogenes’ citizenships were revoked as a result of this occurrence, and the father-son tandem was expelled from the city. When Diogenes went to the Oracle at Delphi for assistance, he was ordered to “deface the currency,” according to legend. He eventually discovered the oracle was referring to defacing “political wealth,” not physical money. As a result of this realisation, he decided to question the land’s established norms and traditions.

Diogenes relocated to Athens with a slave named Manes. Manes was able to flee, abandoning his previous master. Diogenes faced the circumstance with exemplary stoicism, deciding that being alone was preferable to “dependence on someone.” Diogenes first met Antisthenes, a disciple of Socrates, at Athens. Antisthenes impressed him so much that he begged him to be his tutor. Antisthenes, who wasn’t used to accepting students, originally declined. Diogenes, on the other hand, refused to let up and pushed Antisthenes until he approved him as a student.

In the decades that followed, Diogenes surpassed Antisthenes in reputation. He also lived an even more modest lifestyle than his master. Diogenes was dedicated to living as simply as possible. He was adamant about avoiding worldly pleasures and possessed very few possessions. He despised all personal belongings and saw self-control as a major virtue. He resided in the Athens market, taking refuge in a big wine barrel or in abandoned bathtubs. He had no possessions. He once possessed a dish for food and water, but tossed it away after seeing someone sip water with his cupped hands, according to legend.

He was also unconcerned about the country’s laws and customs. Eating in the markets was frowned upon in Athens. Diogenes, on the other hand, disobeyed this custom and ate there even if he was chastised. He also defecated in front of the audience, urinated on people who had offended him, and masturbated in public. In broad daylight, he adopted the habit of carrying a torch. When questioned about his strange behaviour, he would say that he was searching for a honourable person but only saw rascals and scoundrels.

Diogenes was seized by pirates while sailing to Aegina and sold as a slave in Crete, according to a narrative attributed to Menippus of Gadara. Xeniades, his new master’s name, recruited him to instruct his boys. Different versions give different specifics of Diogenes’ life after that, but it seems that he lived his final years in Corinth. An encounter involving Alexander the Great and Diogenes is said to have taken place in Corinth. Various sources relate different versions of their conversation, but the implication is that Diogenes humiliated Alexander.

Diogenes is considered one of the founders of Cynicism, with his master Antisthenes and Crates of Thebes. Despite the fact that none of Diogenes’ writings have survived, he is said to have produced over 10 volumes and seven tragedies. Diogenes was a “citizen of the world”, and is regarded with being the first person to use the term. He was a guy without a social identity as an exile and pariah at an era when a person’s identity was deeply linked to his citizenship of a single city-state.

For his day, Diogenes lived an unusually long life. The circumstances surrounding his death remain unknown. Some accounts indicate he died after holding his breath, while others believe he died after becoming ill after eating raw octopus. He was bit by an infected dog, according to another version. In 323 BC, he died. He was roughly 89 years old at the time. He left instructions for his remains to be dumped just outside of the city wall after he died. Nevertheless, there is no evidence that this occurred.

2) Main themes in his writings:

Obscenity:

Diogenes demonstrated what he preached. He attempted to show that knowledge and satisfaction belonged to the person who is self-sufficient from society, and that civilisation is backward. He despised not just his family and social structure, but also his own property and reputation. He even questioned conventional notions of human morality. Diogenes is reported to have dined in the markets, urinated on individuals who offended him, defecated in the theatre, masturbated in public, and insulted people by pointing his middle finger at them.

When queried about his public eating, he remarked, “If taking breakfast is nothing out of place, then it is nothing out of place in the marketplace. But taking breakfast is nothing out of place, therefore it is nothing out of place to take breakfast in the marketplace.” If only it were as easy to dispel hunger by caressing my belly, he would add, referring to the vulgarity of his public masturbation.

Diogenes as dogged or dog-like:

Diogenes’ dog-like conduct and appreciation of a dog’s virtues are mentioned in numerous instances. It’s unclear if Diogenes was insulted with the label “doggish” and made a virtue of it, or if he came up with the dog theme on his own. “I fawn on those who offer me anything, I yelp at those who refuse, and I set my teeth in rascals,” he said when asked why he was dubbed a dog.

Diogenes believed that humans live artificially and hypocritically, and that humans would benefit from studying dogs. A dog will eat anything and make no fuss about where to sleep, in addition to completing natural body functions in public with ease. Dogs are unconcerned about the future and have no use for abstract philosophy’s pretences. Dogs are also said to know instinctively who is friend and who is adversary, in addition to these virtues. Unlike humans, who either deceive others or deceive themselves, dogs will bark at the truth. “Other dogs bite their foes; I bite my friends to save them,” Diogenes said.

The word “cynic” comes from the Greek words κυvικόc, kynikos, which means “dog-like,” and kyonκύων, kyon, which means “dog”. Antisthenes taught in the Cynosarges gymnasium in Athens, according to one ancient account for why the Cynics were dubbed dogs. The word Cynosarges means “white dog’s place.”

Later Cynics attempted to use the phrase to their advantage as well, as one commentator put it: “The Cynics were given their moniker for four reasons. First, because of their way of life’s indifference; they practise a cult of indifference, eating and making love in public, going barefoot, and sleeping in tubs and at crossroads, just like dogs. The second reason is that the dog is a shameless animal, and they have created a cult of shamelessness, which they regard as superior to modesty rather than under it. The third reason is that the dog is an excellent protector and will protect their philosophy’s precepts. The fourth reason is that dogs are discriminating animals that can tell the difference between friends and foes. So they recognise as friends those who are suited to philosophy and welcome them warmly, while those who are not are driven away by barking at them like dogs.”

Contemporary theory:

The Hegelian philosopher Max Stirner conceived of Diogenes’ asceticism as a form of hedonism in his book The Ego and Its Own, asking, “What else was Diogenes of Sinope looking for if not the true enjoyment of life, which he found in having the fewest possible wants?” Stirner later cited Diogenes’ meeting with Alexander, during which the Cynic demanded the young king move out of the way of the sunlight, as an example.

In a book published in 1983, German philosopher Peter Sloterdijk discusses Diogenes (English-language publication in 1987). Diogenes is presented as an example of Sloterdijk’s concept of the “kynical” – in which personal degradation is employed for the goal of community criticism or censure – in Sloterdijk’s Critique of Cynical Reason. Theorizing that the kynical actor genuinely represents the message he is trying to transmit, Sloterdijk theorises that the kynical actor’s purpose is often a false regression that mocks authority – particularly authority that the kynical actor views corrupt, dubious, or unworthy authority.

In Michel Foucault’s book Fearless Speech, there is another discussion of Diogenes and the Cynics. Foucault addresses Diogenes’ antics in connection to the ancient world’s truthspeaking (parrhesia). In his final lecture at the Coll.ge de France, The Courage of Truth, Foucault develops on this reading. Through a reading of Diogenes and Cynicism, Foucault attempts to develop an alternative understanding of militancy and revolution in this course.

3) His influence in the history of ideas:

Despite his disruptive nature, Diogenes had a huge influence on ancient philosophy. He cofounded the prominent school of thought known as the Cynics with his instructor Antisthenes. The school’s name is derived from the Greek adjective κυvικός (kunikos), which means “dog-like,” and is derived from the Greek noun for dog κύων (kuōn genitive kunos). When asked what kind of man Diogenes is, Plato replies, “A Socrates gone insane” (Diogenes Laertius, Book 6, Chapter 54). Diogenes’ adaption of Socratic philosophy has often been considered as one of degradation, as Plato’s name suggests.

Diogenes has been interpreted by some researchers as an extreme form of Socratic knowledge, providing a fascinating, if crude, moment in the history of ancient thought, but one that should not be mistaken with the real business of philosophy. This interpretation is influenced by Diogenes’ biography’s mixture of shamelessness and asksis. However, this interpretation ignores the importance of reason in Diogenes’ practise.

Diogenes’ shamelessness is best understood in the perspective of Cynicism as a whole. However, it is the result of a repositioning of convention below nature and reason. One guiding idea is that if an act isn’t shameful in private, it won’t be shameful in public. For example, eating in the marketplace was against Athenian custom, but he would do so because, as he explained when reprimanded, it was there that he felt hungry. The most egregious of these behaviours is his immoral behaviour in the marketplace, to which he replied, “he wishes it were as easy to ease hunger by stroking an empty stomach” (Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers, Book 6, Chapter 46).

He is deemed insane for defying convention, but Diogenes points out that it is the conventions that are insane: “Most people, he would add, are so close to being insane that a finger makes all the difference.” Because if you go along with your middle finger stretched out, someone will think you’re insane, but if it’s the little finger, he won’t.” (Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers, Book 6, Chapter 35). Reason definitely plays a part in these philosophical fragments.

According to Diogenes Laertius’ Lives of Eminent Philosophers, Book 6, Chapter 24, Diogenes “would repeatedly say that for the conduct of life we require correct reason or a halter.” According to Diogenes, each person should either allow reason to govern her behaviour or, like an animal, be led by a leash; reason steers one away from mistakes and toward the ideal way to live life. Diogenes, on the other hand, does not scorn knowledge per se, but rather intellectual pretensions that serve no purpose.

He despises sophisms in particular. By touching his forehead, he refutes the notion that a person has horns, and by strolling around, he refutes the allegation that there is no such thing as motion. He also challenges Platonic definitions, and one of his most remarkable actions stems from this: “Plato had characterised the human being as an animal, biped and featherless, and was praised.”

‘Here is Plato’s human being,’ Diogenes said as he plucked a bird and carried it into the lecture hall. As a result, the term ‘having broad nails’ was added to the definition.” (Book 6, Chapter 40 of Diogenes Laertius’ Lives of Eminent Philosophers). Diogenes is a fierce critic of Plato, frequently criticising Plato’s philosophical ambitions and thereby foreshadowing a rift between the two philosophers. Diogenes is a sharp critic of Plato’s metaphysical endeavours, signifying a clear divergence from exclusively theoretical ethics.

Diogenes’ ability to disrupt societal and religious customs as well as political power can lead readers to dismiss his viewpoint as purely negative. This, however, would be a mistake. Diogenes is a thorn in the side, yet he does it in the name of reason and virtue. In the end, to be rational is to be in agreement with nature, because it is in the essence of a human being to act rationally. Diogenes is having problems locating such folks, and he expresses his frustrations on stage. “I am seeking for a human being,” Diogenes stated as he walked around with a lamp lit in broad daylight (Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers, Book 6, Chapter 41).

According to the Cynics, living in accordance with reason is living in accordance with nature, and hence living in accordance with reason is greater than convention and the polis. Furthermore, the Cynics assert that such a life is worth living. Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers, Book 6, Chapter 38: “He maintained that to fortune he could oppose courage, to convention nature, to passion reason” (Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers, Book 6, Chapter 38).