When the various sources are held together, foundational Cynic tenets and their expression in the life of Diogenes of Sinope clearly emerge. Though they likely date from centuries after Diogenes of Sinope, the letters offer an intriguing glimpse into the sustained interest in Cynicism as well as its core values. The Cynic Epistles purport to be the correspondences between Cynics, including Diogenes, Diogenes’ student Crates, and even Socrates. They are discussed by Julian the Apostate, Plutarch, and Stobaeus, to name a few, while Diogenes and Cynicism figure prominently in the satires of Lucian and Pseudo-Lucian. The latter overlaps with Plato and Aristotle while the Diogenes who writes of him lives centuries later.įortunately, other accounts of Diogenes and the Cynics exist from Stoic sources, such as Dio Chrysostom and Epictetus, and from those arguing with the Stoics, like Philodemus. Diogenes Laertius lives in the 3rd Century CE, while Diogenes of Sinope’s dates from C. Though Antisthenes was a close companion of Socrates and figures as a prominent interlocutor in Xenophon’s Socratic dialogues, his influence is eclipsed by that of Diogenes.Ī principal source for our knowledge of Diogenes’ life and thought is Book VI, Chapter 2 of Diogenes Laertius’ Lives of Eminent Philosophers (for anyone who has yet to encounter it, or who has only read the sometimes prudish and stodgy Loeb edition linked above, a treat awaits in Oxford University Press’ 2018 version, adroitly translated by Pamela Mensch and edited by James Miller). According to the stories about Diogenes, he is preceded by Antisthenes, who may have been the first to be called “Cynic”. They had no formal school or locus, unlike Plato’s Academy or Zeno’s Stoa, practicing philosophy in public and leading lives that were exemplary of their philosophical commitments. Though there are varying accounts of its transference this association, it adheres to the chosen life of unconventional philosophers known for their poverty, freedom, virtue, and fearless laughter. 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. 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.

“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.

Diogenes philosophy