He was attracted by the ascetic teaching of Antisthenes, a student of Socrates, who (according to Plato) had been present at his death. He would particularly find the figure of a master who could do nothing for himself contemptibly helpless.
With characteristic humour, Diogenes dismissed his ill fortune by saying, "If Manes can live without Diogenes, why not Diogenes without Manes?" Diogenes would be consistent in making fun of such a relation of extreme dependency. This distinction between nature ("physis") and custom ("nomos") is a favorite theme of ancient Greek philosophy, and one that Plato takes up in The Republic, in the legend of the Ring of Gyges.ĭiogenes is alleged to have gone to Athens with a slave named Manes who abandoned him shortly thereafter. Instead of being troubled about the true nature of evil, people merely rely on customary interpretations.
Custom, he alleged, was the false coin of human morality. In his new home, Athens, Diogenes' mission became to metaphorically deface the "coinage" of custom. The reasons for the defacement of the coinage are unclear, although Sinope was being disputed between pro-Persian and pro-Greek factions in the 4th century, and there may have been political rather than financial motives behind the act.Īccording to one story, Diogenes went to the Oracle at Delphi to ask for its advice, and was told that he should "deface the currency," and Diogenes, realizing that the oracle meant that he should deface the political currency rather than actual coins, traveled to Athens and made it his life's goal to challenge established customs and values. This aspect of the story seems to be corroborated by archaeology: large numbers of defaced coins (smashed with a large chisel stamp) have been discovered at Sinope dating from the middle of the 4th century BCE, and other coins of the time bear the name of Hicesias as the official who minted them. At some point (and the details are murky) Hicesias and Diogenes became embroiled in a scandal involving the adulteration or defacement of the currency, and Diogenes was exiled from the city. It seems likely that Diogenes was also enrolled into the banking business aiding his father. Nothing is known about his early life except that his father Hicesias was a banker. Lifeĭiogenes was born in the Greek colony of Sinope on the south coast of the Black Sea, either in 412 BCE or 404 BCE. None of his many writings have survived, but details of his life come in the form of anecdotes (chreia), especially from Diogenes Laërtius, in his book Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers.
His life was a relentless campaign to debunk the social values and institutions of what he saw as a corrupt society. He believed that virtue was better revealed in action than in theory. After being captured by pirates and sold into slavery, Diogenes eventually settled in Corinth, where he was admired by Alexander.ĭiogenes was a staunch admirer of Hercules. He regularly argued with Plato, disputing his interpretation of Socrates and sabotaging his lectures. He became notorious for his provocative behaviour and philosophical stunts such as carrying a lamp in the daytime, claiming to be looking for an honest man. He became a disciple of Antisthenes, and made a virtue of extreme poverty, famously begging for a living and sleeping in a tub in the marketplace. Exiled from his native city for defacing the currency, he moved to Athens and declared himself a cosmopolitan (in defiance of the prevailing city-state system). Diogenes taught 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 branches of Greek philosophy.ĭiogenes of Sinope was always controversial. He intellectually humiliated Plato and was the only pupil ever accepted by Antisthenes, whom he saw as the true heir of Socrates. Also known as Diogenes of Sinope (Greek: Διογένης ὁ Σινωπεύς, Diogenēs ho Sinōpeus), he was born in Sinope (modern-day Sinop, Turkey) in 412 or 404 BCE and died at Corinth in 323 BCE.ĭiogenes was one of the few men to ever publicly mock Alexander the Great and live. Diogenes the Cynic (Greek: Διογένης ὁ Κυνικός, Diogenēs ho Kunikos) was a Greek philosopher and one of the founders of Cynic philosophy.
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