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. Diogenes of Sinope was a contemporary of Plato and Alexander the Great.

Diogenes quotes slavery