When speaking of famous and influential Greek philosophers, Aristotle, Socrates and Plato are the names that are the most often brought up. However, this does not mean that they are the only ones that have contributed to philosophy. This article will focus on one of the founders of the school of cynicism and one of the most infamous philosophers of his time, Diogenes of Sinope. Diogenes was born in Sinope, an Ionian colony on the Black Sea coast of Anatolia but was later exiled to Athens due to defacing currency (though some accounts say it was his father who committed the crime and he merely followed him into exile). After having arrived in Athens, he started living in a jar or a tub depending on the sources. He had no possessions and lived on the generosity of others. He used to own a cup to draw water and to serve as a bowl for food but threw it away when he saw a boy drinking water from his hands. He rejected all things which he considered unnecessary in life like belongings and personal status. Diogenes used to walk the streets of Athens holding a lantern to the faces of the people he came across claiming he was searching for an honest man. According to him, most people were liars and hypocrites who fooled themselves and others. To him, the citizens of Athens were narrow- minded and lived their lives based on shallow values. Another incident which displays his brutal honesty is when he heard that Plato defined a human being as a featherless biped. He then brought a plucked chicken to Plato’s Academy and declared “Behold, Plato’s human being! “. He was not afraid to speak his mind, even to people who were considered wise and had a higher social status than him. It is reported that he had a great love for dogs, a trait that many of us can probably relate to. Indeed, the word cynic is derived from the Greek word “kynikos”, which translates to dog-like. According to him, dogs had many positive attributes that people could learn from. Dogs will eat almost anything, and are not picky about where they sleep. They live without anxiety and know who is friend or an enemy by instinct. In the city of Sinope in Turkey, there is a statue of Diogenes with a lantern in hand and a dog besides him. When asked how he would like to be buried, he said that he would like to be thrown into the wild where animals could feed upon his corpse, so that he could give back to the Earth what little he took from it. He died at the age of 89, though sources differ on what the cause of death was. Some said he died from an infected dog bite and others said that he died from eating raw octopus.
BY HAASHIM EARALLY
Comentarios