DIÓGENES de Sinope (412 - 323 a.C.)
The most illustrious of the Cynic philosophers,
Diogenes of Sinope serves as the template for the Cynic sage in antiquity. An
alleged student of Antisthenes, Diogenes maintains his
teacher’s asceticism and emphasis on ethics, but brings to these philosophical
positions a dynamism and sense of humor unrivaled in the history of philosophy.
Though originally from Sinope, the majority of the stories comprising his
philosophical biography occur in Athens, and some of the most celebrated of
these place Alexander the Great or Plato as his foil.It is disputed
whether Diogenes left anything in writing. If he did, the texts he composed
have since been lost. In Cynicism, living and writing are two components of
ethical practice, but Diogenes is much like Socrates and even Plato in his
sentiments regarding the superiority of direct verbal interaction over the
written account. Diogenes scolds Hegesias after he asks to be lent one of
Diogenes’ writing tablets: “You are a simpleton, Hegesias; you do not choose
painted figs, but real ones; and yet you pass over the true training and would
apply yourself to written rules” (Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers, Book 6,
Chapter 48). In reconstructing Diogenes’ ethical model, then, the life he lived
is as much his philosophical work as any texts he may have composed.
1. Life
The exceptional nature of
Diogenes’ life generates some difficulty for determining the exact events that
comprise it. He was a citizen of Sinope who either fled or was exiled because
of a problem involving the defacing of currency. Thanks to numismatic evidence,
the adulteration of Sinopean coinage is one event about which there is
certainty. The details of the defacing, though, are murkier: “Diocles relates
that [Diogenes] went into exile because his father was entrusted with the money
of the state and adulterated the coinage. But Eubulides in his book on Diogenes
says that Diogenes himself did this and was forced to leave home along with his
father” (Diogenes Laertius, Lives of
Eminent Philosophers, Book 6, Chapter 20). Whether it was Diogenes
or his father who defaced the currency, and for whatever reasons they may have
done so, the act led to Diogenes’ relocation to Athens.
Diogenes’ biography becomes,
historically, only sketchier. For example, one story claims that Diogenes was
urged by the oracle at Delphi to adulterate the political currency, but
misunderstood and defaced the state currency (Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers, Book 6,
Chapter 20). A second version tells of Diogenes traveling to Delphi
and receiving this same oracle after he had already altered the currency,
turning his crime into a calling. It is, finally, questionable whether Diogenes
ever consulted the oracle at all; the Delphic advice is curiously close to
Socrates’ own injunction, and the interweaving of life and legend in Diogenes’
case is just as substantial.
Once in Athens, Diogenes famously took a tub, or a pithos, for an abode. In Lives of Eminent Philosophers, it is
reported that Diogenes “had written to some one to try and procure a cottage
for him. When this man was a long time about it, he took for his abode the tub
in the Metroön, as he himself explains in his letters” (Diogenes Laertius, Book
6, Chapter 23). Apparently Diogenes discovered that he had no need for
conventional shelter or any other “dainties” from having watched a mouse. The
lesson the mouse teaches is that he is capable of adapting himself to any
circumstance. This adaptability is the origin of Diogenes’ legendary askēsis, or training.
Diogenes Laertius reports
that Diogenes of Sinope “fell in” with Antisthenes who, though not in the habit
of taking students, was worn out by Diogenes’ persistence (Lives of Eminent Philosophers, Book 6,
Chapter 22). Although this account has been met with suspicion, especially
given the likely dates of Diogenes’ arrival in Athens and Antisthenes’ death, it supports
the perception that the foundation of Diogenes’ philosophical practice rests
with Antisthenes.
Another important, though possibly
invented, episode in Diogenes’ life centers around his enslavement in Corinth after having been
captured by pirates. When asked what he could do, he replied “Govern men,”
which is precisely what he did once bought by Xeniades. He was placed in charge
of Xeniades’ sons, who learned to follow his ascetic example. One story tells
of Diogenes’ release after having become a cherished member of the household,
another claims Xeniades freed him immediately, and yet another maintains that
he grew old and died at Xeniades’ house in Corinth. Whichever version may be true (and,
of course, they all could be false), the purpose is the same: Diogenes the
slave is freer than his master, who he rightly convinces to submit to his
obedience.
Though most accounts agree
that he lived to be quite old— some suggesting he lived until ninety— the tales
of Diogenes’ death are no less multiple than those of his life. The possible
cause of death includes a voluntary demise by holding his breath, an illness
brought on by eating raw octopus, or death by dog bite. Given the embellished
feel of each of these reports, it is more likely that he died of old age.
2. Philosophical Practice: A Socrates Gone Mad
When Plato is asked what sort
of man Diogenes is, he responds, “A Socrates gone mad” (Diogenes Laertius, Book
6, Chapter 54). Plato’s label is representative, for Diogenes’ adaptation of
Socratic philosophy has frequently been regarded as one of degradation. Certain
scholars have understood Diogenes as an extreme version of Socratic wisdom,
offering a fascinating, if crude, moment in the history of ancient thought, but
which ought not to be confused with the serious business of philosophy. This
reading is influenced by the mixture of shamelessness and askēsis which riddle Diogenes’ biography.
This understanding, though, overlooks the centrality of reason in Diogenes’
practice.
Diogenes’ sense of
shamelessness is best seen in the context of Cynicism in general. Specifically,
though, it stems from a repositioning of convention below nature and reason. One
guiding principle is that if an act is not shameful in private, that same act
is not made shameful by being performed in public. For example, it was contrary
to Athenian convention to eat in the marketplace, and yet there he would eat
for, as he explained when reproached, it was in the marketplace that he felt
hungry. The most scandalous of these sorts of activities involves his indecent
behavior in the marketplace, to which he responded “he wished it were as easy
to relieve hunger by rubbing an empty stomach” (Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers, Book 6,
Chapter 46).
He is labeled mad for acting
against convention, but Diogenes points out that it is the conventions which
lack reason: “Most people, he would say, are so nearly mad that a finger makes
all the difference. For if you go along with your middle finger stretched out,
some one will think you mad, but, if it’s the little finger, he will not think
so” (Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent
Philosophers, Book 6, Chapter 35). In these philosophical
fragments, reason clearly has a role to play. There is a report that Diogenes
“would continually say that for the conduct of life we need right reason or a
halter” (Diogenes Laertius, Lives of
Eminent Philosophers, Book 6, Chapter 24). For Diogenes, each
individual should either allow reason to guide her conduct, or, like an animal,
she will need to be lead by a leash; reason guides one away from mistakes and
toward the best way in which to live life. Diogenes, then, does not despise
knowledge as such, but despises pretensions to knowledge that serve no purpose.
He is especially scornful of
sophisms. He disproves an argument that a person has horns by touching his
forehead, and in a similar manner, counters the claim that there is no such
thing as motion by walking around. He elsewhere disputes Platonic definitions
and from this comes one of his more memorable actions: “Plato had defined the
human being as an animal, biped and featherless, and was applauded. Diogenes
plucked a fowl and brought it into the lecture-room with the words, ‘Here is
Plato’s human being.’ In consequence of which there was added to the
definition, ‘having broad nails’” (Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers, Book 6,
Chapter 40). Diogenes is a harsh critic of Plato, regularly disparaging Plato’s
metaphysical pursuits and thereby signaling a clear break from primarily
theoretical ethics.
Diogenes’ talent for
undercutting social and religious conventions and subverting political power
can tempt readers into viewing his position as merely negative. This would,
however, be a mistake. Diogenes is clearly contentious, but he is so for the
sake of promoting reason and virtue. In the end, for a human to be in accord
with nature is to be rational, for it is in the nature of a human being to act
in accord with reason. Diogenes has trouble finding such humans, and expresses
his sentiments regarding his difficulty theatrically. Diogenes is reported to
have “lit a lamp in broad daylight and said, as he went about, ‘I am searching
for a human being’” (Diogenes Laertius, Lives
of Eminent Philosophers, Book 6, Chapter 41).
For the Cynics, life in
accord with reason is lived in accord with nature, and therefore life in accord
with reason is greater than the bounds of convention and the polis. Furthermore, the Cynics claim that
such a life is the life worth living. As a homeless and penniless exile,
Diogenes experienced the greatest misfortunes of which the tragedians write,
and yet he insisted that he lived the good life: “He claimed that to fortune he
could oppose courage, to convention nature, to passion reason” (Diogenes
Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers,
Book 6, Chapter 38).
3. References and Further Reading
- Billerbeck, Margarethe. Die Kyniker in der modernen Forschung. Amsterdam: B.R. Grüner, 1991.
- Branham, Bracht and Marie-Odile Goulet-Cazé, eds. The Cynics: The Cynic Movement in Antiquity and Its Legacy. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996.
- Dudley, D. R. A History of Cynicism from Diogenes to the 6th Century A.D. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1937.
- Goulet-Cazé, Marie-Odile. L’Ascèse cynique: Un commentaire de Diogène Laërce VI 70-71, Deuxième édition. Paris: Libraire Philosophique J. VRIN, 2001.
- Goulet-Cazé, Marie-Odile and Richard Goulet, eds. Le Cynisme ancien et ses prolongements. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1993.
- Diogenes Laertius. Lives of Eminent Philosophers Vol. I-II. Trans. R.D. Hicks. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1979.
- Long, A.A. and David N. Sedley, eds. The Hellenistic Philosophers, Volume 1 and Volume 2. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987.
- Malherbe, Abraham J., ed. and trans. The Cynic Epistles. Missoula, Montana: Scholars Press, 1977.
- Navia, Luis E. Diogenes of Sinope: The Man in the Tub. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1990.
- Navia, Luis E. Classical Cynicism: A Critical Study. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1996.
- Paquet, Léonce. Les Cyniques grecs: fragments et témoignages. Ottawa: Presses de l’Universitaire d’Ottawa, 1988.
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