Instead, he wanted to demonstrate how unreasonable our conventional notions of ethics often are. He called Diogenes “a Socrates gone mad.” But Diogenes was not opposed to reason. When he was questioned by his fellow Athenians, he just said, “If only the pangs of hunger could be eased by rubbing the stomach,” and continued with what he was doing. For example, Diogenes was often found masturbating in the marketplace. The cynic commitment to naturalness was sometimes shocking. The cynics believed that we should return to a focus on our basic needs, embrace our naturalness, and forget about the things that we think are important. They care about warmth, food, and companionship. Dogs don’t care about culture, philosophy, art and literature, or the finer things in life. Here, the idea of the cynics as “dog-like” philosophers comes into its own. To free ourselves from these knots and confusions, we need to cultivate a more natural way of living. Diogenes and his followers believed that we are all deluded when it comes to everyday notions about goodness and badness, about the values that our cultures hold true, and about what it means to live a flourishing life. For the cynics, the everyday currency of ethics was deeply, profoundly wrong. Diogenes was a philosopher who defaced and reminted the everyday currency of ethics. The story of defaced currency has a broader significance in cynicism. It was this lifestyle-living outside, like any other animal-that led to Diogenes being referred to as “the Dog.” This was an idea he said to have gotten from watching a mouse and reflecting on how adaptable the creature was to its circumstances. Diogenes wanted to return to a more natural way of living, one free of the artifice of culture. This odd choice of home had a philosophical purpose. In Athens, Diogenes became a beggar and took up residence in an abandoned pithos, a large wine jar. This story is backed up by archaeological finds of a large number of defaced coins from Sinope, dating from the early 4th century BCE. When it was discovered that the coinage that his father produced was being adulterated, Diogenes went into exile and fled to Athens. According to later accounts, his father was in charge of the state mint, producing coinage to help fuel the growing trade across the ancient world. People called Diogenes “the dog,” and Diogenes embraced this insult and made it his own.ĭiogenes was born in the town of Sinope, in present-day Turkey. The word comes from the Greek word “ kynikos,” or “dog-like.” It is a name that goes back to an insult that was hurled at the most famous cynic philosopher, Diogenes of Sinope (c. In this lesson, we’re going to explore the ancient Greek philosophical tradition known as cynicism. Episode #7 of the course Ancient Greek philosophy by Dr.
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