The word in antiquity differs considerably from current usage κυνικός, transliterated as kunikos or kynikos, simply means “dog-like”. He undoubtedly offers a fiercer version of ethics than Socrates, but, to tritely paraphrase Polonius, there is method in Diogenes’ madness.ĭiogenes’ philosophical position is as a first and paradigmatic Cynic. This leads some of his contemporaries to view him as a hyperbolic version of Socrates, or, as Plato would say, a “Socrates gone mad”. Diogenes is also known for fearless truth-telling, improvisational responses as well as indelible performances, an embrace of poverty and so-called “shamelessness”, and a tenacious ethical resilience.
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Diogenes advocates a care for virtue and the state of one’s soul, resists false piety and conventional attitudes toward reputation and value, and remains unflappable in perilous situations. The similarities between Diogenes and Socrates are hard to ignore. Whereas Socrates identifies as a gadfly, Diogenes is a dog, and with him, ethics gains its bite. In the generation that follows Socrates, however, Diogenes of Sinope will unleash philosophy’s ethical potential with vitality and humour. Luckily his cooler friends let him shred on theirs before he died.“If happiness and the chase for new happiness keep alive in any sense the will to live, no philosophy has perhaps more truth than the Cynic’s.”Īs the illustrious Roman scholars Varro and Cicero reflect on the ethical turn in Greek philosophy, they rightly focus on Socrates, observing that he was the first to draw philosophy down from the heavens, placing her in the cities of men, so that she might inquire about life and morality. We assume Plato omitted key information, and Socrates also asked for a wicked new electric guitar.
DIOGENES PHILOSOPHY FREE
The reward? Free food at the same building government officials and Olympic champions met- forever. " He stood up in front of the judges and said that he actually deserved a reward for his service to Athens. Did he ask for the quickest death? For jail time instead? Maybe for the charges to be dropped? Nah, proving what would later be a central tenet of another philosopher's thought, Socrates saw the game was over and, instead of pleading for leniency, demanded something even dry academic commentators call " purposely outrageous. You see, during his trial, Socrates also had the opportunity for a plea. We won't get into details around his Apology of Socrates, except for one specific detail that really puts Socrates' badass acceptance of death in perspective.
DIOGENES PHILOSOPHY TRIAL
Now, we have a lot of info on Socrates' trial given Xenophon's account, but mainly thanks to the one left by his most famous disciple, Plato.
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These were worshiping false gods and corrupting the youth, which sounds so cool one almost expects the third charge to be "pimp game too strong." Given his challenging societal role and his intellectual influence on Athens, around 399 BC, Socrates was sentenced to death on two charges.
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Jacques-Louis David Socrates: "Tell me one single person I’ve annoyed!" The disciples: “ Duuuuuuuude…” As you can probably guess, Athens' fat cats didn't like this so much. They never had an answer, and so Socrates would put his troll face on, say, 'Hey, don't ask me, all I know is I don't know anything ,' and be on his way to annoy the next big shot like a damn bug. They all agree on Socrates' shtick, though, which was to go around ancient Athens (back then, it was called "contemporary Athens") questioning its most important people on what the hell it is that they do. He never wrote anything, which means that the main things we know about him come from three people who knew him while he was alive. He was a Greek philosopher from the 5th century BC, and in the obscure, technical jargon philosophers use, dude was made of sass. 5 Socrates Doubles Down On A Death Sentence