![]() ![]() His goals were self-sufficiency, a tough and ascetic way of life, and anaideia, or shamelessness. The first was the ultimate goal at which the Cynic life aimed. It involved a search for true happiness through the realization that wealth, rank, honors, success, and other such worldly aims were as nothing compared with complete independence of mind. The second and third aims supported the first.ĭiogenes held that through a rigorous denial of all but the barest necessities of life one could train the body to be free of the world and its delusions. Through anaideia one could show the rest of humanity the contempt in which their conventions were held. ![]() It was perhaps this last characteristic of Diogenes and his followers which gave the sect its name, since anaideiainvolved carrying out acts in public which most men usually do in private. Other accounts hold that the name Cynic (doglike) derives from the Gymnasium Kynosarges in Athens, where Antisthenes taught.Ĭrates, Diogenes's pupil, propagated the master's teachings after his death. In addition to the influence which Diogenes had on numbers of his contemporaries, he also served as a source for the development of Stoicism. Further ReadingĮxcellent accounts of the life of Diogenes, as it can be pieced together from various ancient traditions, may be found in D. Dudley, A History of Cynicism (1937), and Farrand Sayre, Diogenes of Sinope (1938). Also good, although more for the Cynics as a group than for Diogenes, is Eduard Zeller, Outlines of the History of Greek Philosophy (1881 trans. Philosophers did not always dress according to convention. But the philosopher who made a cult of shunning all luxury was Diogenes of Sinope, who founded the Cynic school of philosophy (though some credited its foundation to a disciple of Socrates named Antisthenes, whom Diogenes considered his teacher).Ĥ33 b.c.e.)-best known for defining the four elements of earth, air, fire and water-wore sandals with soles of bronze. ![]()
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