![]() Diogenes replied, “Yes, stand out of my sunlight.” Alexander then declared, “If I were not Alexander, then I should wish to be Diogenes.” “If I were not Diogenes, I would still wish to be Diogenes,” Diogenes replied. ![]() Diogenes was relaxing in the morning sunlight, and Alexander, thrilled to meet the famous philosopher, asked if there was any favour he might do for him. It was at this point Plato declared Diogenes as a “Socrates gone mad.”ĭiogenes was also noted for having mocked Alexander the Great to his face publicly when he visited Corinth in 336 BC. This was where he passed his philosophy of Cynicism to Crates, who taught it to Zeno of Citium, who fashioned it into the school of Stoicism, one of the most enduring schools of Greek philosophy.Īlthough no writings of Diogenes survived, there are some details of his life from anecdotes (chreia), especially from Diogenes Laërtius’ book Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers and some other sources.Īccording to Diogenes Laërtius, when Plato gave the tongue-in-cheek definition of man as “featherless bipeds,” Diogenes plucked a chicken and brought it into Plato’s Academy, saying, “Behold! I’ve brought you a man,” the Academy added “with broad flat nails” to the definition. At other times he was seen bringing food and eating during the discussions.Įventually, Diogenes was captured by pirates and sold into slavery, settling in Corinth. The list of philosophical stunts he pulled is endless, ranging from carrying a lamp during the day claiming to be “looking for an honest man,” to criticizing Plato while disputing his interpretation of Socrates and sabotaging his lectures. Debates exist today that the motive behind this act could have very much been political rather than financial as suspected. While it seems like a malicious story, the important detail of it is corroborated by archaeology seeing as large numbers of defaced coins have been discovered at Sinope, dating from the middle of the 4th century BC, and other coins of the time bear the name of Hicesias as the official who minted them. This led to his being exiled from the city after losing his citizenship and all material possessions. The record of his life’s drama dates back to the scandal saddle by him and his father on basis of adulteration of the accepted legal tender. He lived in a clay wine jar belonging to the temple of Cybele. The stories told of Diogenes illustrate the logical consistency of his character. Although little is known about his early life, it was general knowledge that his father named Hicesias was a banker and it is believed that Diogenes enrolled in this trade likewise.īefore his death dated 323 BC, he was regarded as quite a controversial figure not that this view changed much after his death. Diogenes, a Greek philosopher was one of the founding fathers of Cynic Philosophy was born in Sinope, an Ionian colony on the Black Sea coast of modern-day Turkey in 412 or 404 BC and died at Corinth at the age of 89. ![]()
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