![]() ![]() This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. These cookies ensure basic functionalities and security features of the website, anonymously. ![]() Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. Diogenes lived the rest of his life in Corinth, where he was cherished by the people in his household and his local community. He had a very intriguing personality and, instead of using him in the fields or to do chores, he asked him to tutor his children. The latter was very impressed by Diogenes. The Cynic finally ended up being captured by pirates and sold as a slave to a Corinthian man named Xeniades. At the same, their instincts help them understand who is a true friend and who is an enemy. Dogs live in the present, they don’t care where they sleep, and they eat anything. Dogs are true to their nature and unhypocritical, while humans possess the exact opposite traits. The philosopher did not mind being compared to dogs. ![]() But taking breakfast is nothing out of place, therefore it is nothing out of place to take breakfast in the marketplace.”, he said when asked about eating his breakfast in the marketplace of Athens. “ If taking breakfast is nothing out of place, then it is nothing out of place in the marketplace. People started comparing him to an uncultured dog. It is even rumored that he mocked Alexander the Great some years before his death. He challenged anything people loved or cared for. The philosopher displayed poor manners in public and showed no respect to people. He rejected the traditional lifestyle of his time and did not want to live in a fixed address. He wanted to be virtuous, rather than successful. Athens attracted many philosophers and great thinkers, but the majority of people there seemed to be fixated upon money, beauty, clothes, and fame.ĭiogenes then started romanticizing a mythical hero – Heracles. But the cosmopolitan Greek city did not meet his expectations. In a search of virtue, Diogenes ended up in Athens, the philosophical capital of the world. ![]() There must be something else, more important than money and security, right? In order to cope with the loss of his citizenship and fortune, Diogenes chose to underestimate their importance. For reasons that are not clear, he was exiled from the city of Sinope and lost everything he owned. His father was a banker who minted coins for a living but, as it usually happens, he became the opposite of his father figure: someone who rejects coins. The beggar philosopher of Athens grew up in Sinope, near the Black Sea. Indeed, Diogenes often slept in a pithos – an ancient Greek clay barrel – because he was against owing a house and wanted to live as “naturally” as possible. You might have seen him depicted sleeping in a barrel, surrounded by dogs. Who was Diogenes the Cynic? | Facts about DiogenesĪlthough Antisthenes was the founder of Cynicism, it was Diogenes of Sinope who is the archetypal Cynic. Someone who sees people as motivated mostly by money and success, rather than morality. A cynical person today is someone who is skeptical towards the morals of his or her time. If you call someone “cynical”, you don’t necessarily mean that this person disregards power and material possessions, but rather the opposite. Today, Cynicism is often perceived as a personality trait, rather than a philosophical movement. It comes as no surprise that their teachings inspired many early Christians. They would often beg on the streets, dismissing all their possessions, and preach in public spaces. This time, Cynics would follow an ascetic life. Although this school of thought declined on the 3 rd Century BC, Cynicism reappeared in the Roman Empire in the 1 st Century. They wanted a simple life in accordance to nature. They rejected superficial values, such as wealth, power, and fame. It was founded by Antisthenes, one of Socrates’ pupils, in Cynosarges – a temple of Heracles and public gymnasium on the outskirts of Athens.Ĭynics wanted to live in virtue. What is the Philosophy of Cynicism About?Ĭynicism is a philosophical movement that appeared in Greece around the 5 th Century BC. ![]()
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