Diogenes of Sinope

Diogenes of Sinope

锡诺帕的第欧根尼

Diogenes of Sinope

(

/da

???

d

???ni?z/

; ) was

a

Greek

philosopher

and one of the founders of

Cynic

philosophy.

Also known as

Diogenes the Cynic

, he was born

in

Sinope

(modern-day Sinop,

Turkey

), an Ionian colony on the

Black Sea,

[1]

in 412 or 404 BCE and died at

Corinth

in 323 BCE.

[2]

锡诺帕的第欧根尼

,

古希腊哲学家< /p>

,

犬儒哲学的创始人，生于公元前

412

年或

404

年，卒于公元前

年。

Diogenes of Sinope was a controversial figure. His father minted

coins for a living, and when Diogenes took to

debasement of

currency

, he was banished from Sinope. After being exiled, he

moved to

Athens

and criticized many cultural conventions of the

city. Diogenes modelled himself on the example of

Heracles

. He

believed that

virtue

was better revealed in action than in theory.

He used his

simple lifestyle

and behaviour (which arguably

resembled poverty) to criticize the social values and institutions

of what he saw as a corrupt or at least confused society. In a

highly non-traditional fashion, he had a reputation of sleeping

and eating wherever he chose and took to toughening himself

against nature. He declared himself a

cosmopolitan

and a

citizen of the world rather than claiming allegiance to just one

place. There are many tales about him dogging

Antisthenes

'

footsteps and becoming his

[3]

Diogenes made a

virtue of poverty. He begged for a living and often slept in

a

large ceramic jar

[4]

in the marketplace. He became notorious

for his philosophical stunts such as carrying a lamp in the

daytime, claiming to be looking for an honest man. He criticized

and embarrassed

Plato

, disputed his interpretation

of

Socrates

and sabotaged his lectures, sometimes distracting

attendees by bringing food and eating during the discussions.

Diogenes was also responsible for publicly mocking

Alexander

the Great

.

第欧根尼是一个颇有争议的人物，

他 的父亲是个铸币商，第欧根

尼因铸币少值而被驱逐出锡诺帕，他来到了雅典，大肆批判雅 典

的传统习俗，他把自己视为如希腊神话人物赫拉克勒斯式（放弃

享乐人生，选择充满苦难和奋斗的人生道路，最终达到不朽）的

人物。他相信美德是要 从行动中而不是从理论上体现。他过着俭

朴的生活方式和行为模式（完全类似贫穷）

，批判当时的社会价值

观和社会体制是腐败或者至少是迷乱的社会体 现。他采用了十分

反传统的方式，他天当被，地当床，有什么吃什么，锤炼自己适

应任何自然环境的能力。他宣称自己是国际人，是个世界公民，

而不是 仅仅效忠于某地的公民。有很多关于第欧根尼的说法，说

他亦步亦趋地追随

----

的脚步，

成为

-- -

“忠实的猎狗”

。

在贫穷中，

第欧根尼保持着自己的美德，他以乞讨为生，他经常就睡在市场

中一个大陶罐子里。他的哲学思想让他举世闻名，比如他在白天

举着

After being captured by pirates and sold into

slavery

, Diogenes

eventually settled in

Corinth

. There he passed 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 schools of Greek philosophy. None of Diogenes's

many writings has survived, but details of his life come in the

form of anecdotes (

chreia

), especially from

Diogenes La?

rtius

,

in his book

Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers

. All that

is available is a number of anecdotes concerning his life and

sayings attributed to him in a number of scattered classical

sources.

[5]

[

edit

]< /p>

Nothing is known about Diogenes' early life except that his father

Hicesias was a banker.

[6]

It seems likely that Diogenes was also

enrolled into the banking business aiding his father. At some point

(the exact date is unknown), Hicesias and Diogenes became

embroiled in a scandal involving the adulteration or debasement of

the currency,

[7]

and Diogenes was exiled from the city, lost his

citizenship, and all his material possessions.

[8][9]

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.

[10]

During this time there was a lot of counterfeit

money circulating in Sinope.

[8]

The coins were deliberately defaced

in order to render them worthless as legal tender.

[8]

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.

In Athens

[

edit

]

Diogenes sitting in his tub. Painting by

Jean-Lé

on

Gé

r?

me

(1860)

According to one story,

[9]

Diogenes went to the

Oracle at

Delphi

to ask for its advice and was told that he should

the currency

decided that the oracle meant that he should deface the political

currency rather than actual coins. He traveled to

Athens

and

made it his life's goal to challenge established customs and

values. He argued that instead of being troubled about the true

nature of evil, people merely rely on customary interpretations.

This distinction between nature (

physis

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

Gy ges

.

[11]

Diogenes arrived in Athens with a slave named Manes who

abandoned him shortly thereafter. With characteristic humor,

Diogenes dismissed his ill fortune by saying,

without Diogenes, why not Diogenes without

Manes?

[12]< /p>

Diogenes would mock such a relation of extreme

dependency. He found the figure of a master who could do

nothing for himself contemptibly helpless. He was attracted by

the

ascetic

teaching of

Antisthenes

, a student of Socrates.

When Diogenes asked Antisthenes to mentor him, Antisthenes

ignored him and reportedly

staff

[1]

Diogenes responds,

hard enough to keep me away from you, so long as I think

you've something to say.

[1]

Diogenes became Antisthenes'

pupil, despite the brutality with which he was initially

received.

[13]

Whether the two ever really met is still

uncertain,

[14][15][16]

but he surpassed his master in both reputation

and the austerity of his life. He considered his avoidance of

earthly pleasures a contrast to and commentary on

contemporary Athenian behaviors. This attitude was grounded

in a disdain for what he regarded as the folly, pretense, vanity,

self-deception, and artificiality of human conduct.

Diogenes searches for an honest man. Painting attributed

to

J. H. W. Tischbein

(c. 1780)

The stories told of Diogenes illustrate the logical consistency of

his character. He inured himself to the weather by living in a clay

wine jar

[4][17]

belonging to the temple of

Cybele

.

[18]

He destroyed

the single wooden bowl he possessed on seeing a peasant boy

drink from the hollow of his hands. He then exclaimed

I am, to have been carrying superfluous baggage all this

time!

[19][20]

It was contrary to Athenian customs to eat within the

marketplace, and still he would eat there, for, as he explained

when rebuked, it was during the time he was in the marketplace

that he felt hungry. He used to stroll about in full daylight with

a

lamp

; when asked what he was doing, he would answer,

just looking for an honest man.

[21]

Diogenes looked for a human

being but reputedly found nothing but rascals and scoundrels.

[22]

When Plato gave Socrates's

definition of man

as

bipeds

plucked a

chicken

and brought it into Plato's

Academy

, saying,

flat

nails

[23]

In Corin th

[

edit

]

According to a story which seems to have originated

with

Menippus of Gadara

,

[24]

Diogenes was captured

by

pirates

while on voyage to

Aegina

and sold as

a

slave

in

Crete

to a

Corinthian

named

Xeniades

. Being asked

his trade, he replied that he knew no trade but that of governing

men, and that he wished to be sold to a man who needed a

master. In fact, this was a pun. In ancient Greek this would

sound both as

people

[25]

Xeniades liked his spirit and hired Diogenes to tutor

his children. As tutor to Xeniades's two sons,

[26]

it is said that he

lived in Corinth for the rest of his life, which he devoted to

preaching the doctrines of virtuous self-control. There are many

stories about what actually happened to him after his time with

Xeniades's two sons. There are stories stating he was set free

after he became

one says he was set free almost immediately, and still another

states that

Corinth.

[27]

He is even said to have lectured to large audiences

at the

Isthmian Games

.

[28]

Although most of the stories about him living in a jar

[4]

are

located in Athens, there are some accounts of him living in a jar

near the

Craneum

gymnasium in Corinth:

A report that

Philip II of Macedon

was marching on the town had

thrown all Corinth into a bustle; one was furbishing his arms,

another wheeling stones, a third patching the wall, a fourth