gifttogo.blogg.se

He shunned all possessions, status and wealth and strived to live a life of ascetic simplicity. When he first came to Athens, he took up residence in an upturned wine cask in the agora - the marketplace of Athens. Diogenes ruthlessly applied this simple rubric to every aspect of his life. Simplicity manifests itself in two intertwined ways in the philosophy of Diogenes⁠ - the philosophical and the physical.įor this godfather of Cynical philosophy, living the good life is easy⁠ - it’s just a matter of stripping away all the bullshit, of cutting away everything that is unnecessary. It’s a theme that runs through all the quotes and anecdotes of the ancient philosopher. But to my eyes, there is one word that unlocks the living philosophy of Diogenes more thoroughly than any other: simplicity. There are a lot of different keys for unlocking the philosophy of Diogenes - virtue and freedom amongst them. Diogenes is living out his highest ideal, but the word happiness just doesn’t fit with what he was aspiring to. In the case of Diogenes⁠ - a man who lived in an urn hugging icy statues in the middle of winter⁠ - this glove really doesn’t fit. And obviously, when we use this word, it comes with associations of positive affect and happy feelings of joy and peace.īut the connection between the highest goal of life and happiness is not a necessary one. In modern English, when we talk about the highest goal of life, we tend to use the word happiness. The pursuit of h̶a̶p̶p̶i̶n̶e̶s̶s̶ the Good Life In this article, we will explore the living philosophy of the eternally fascinating and endlessly entertaining Cynic Diogenes. For Diogenes this meant living in an urn in the Athenian marketplace it meant sometimes walking barefoot in the snow and, of course occasionally masturbating in public. He didn’t care for the intellectual search for truth but the living of it. He was famous for his radical philosophy that discarded status, possessions and the learning of books to get at the vital marrow of philosophy - the good life.ĭiogenes was famous for living his philosophy in all its simplicity and coarseness. If you think it’s going to rain, it will.Diogenes of Sinope was a contemporary of Plato and Alexander the Great. If something doesn’t come up the way you want, forge ahead. The role is easy there is none easier, save only the role of the man who sneers alike at both criticism and performance.” - Theodore Roosevelt

They mark the men unfit to bear their part painfully in the stern strife of living, who seek, in the affection of contempt for the achievements of others, to hide from others and from themselves in their own weakness.

A cynical habit of thought and speech, a readiness to criticize work which the critic himself never tries to perform, an intellectual aloofness which will not accept contact with life’s realities - all these are marks, not as the possessor would fain to think, of superiority but of weakness. There is no more unhealthy being, no man less worthy of respect, than he who either really holds, or feigns to hold, an attitude of sneering disbelief toward all that is great and lofty, whether in achievement or in that noble effort which, even if it fails, comes to second achievement. There are many men who feel a kind of twister pride in cynicism there are many who confine themselves to criticism of the way others do what they themselves dare not even attempt. “The poorest way to face life is to face it with a sneer.