Tell me about Diogenes, why is he so cynical

t. 12 year old

haha

He is a meme, he is literally the product of Stoics going WE WUZ SOCRATICS in order to distinguish their intellectual heritage.

There are ZERO contemporary sources for Diogenes. All the stories about him humiliating various people were written many centuries after his lifetime. Every quote, reference, story, anything about him, it's all ultimately coming from later texts like Diogenes Laertius.

He is an obvious, self-serving collection of Stoic lies.

Just like Jesus and Socrates.

FALSE.

Socrates has multiple contemporary sources: Plato & Xenophon & Aristophanes.

As for Jesus, I don't agree or disagree. Hebrew mythology doesn't interest me and I don't know what the sources are for their god on a stick.

They had bathing houses and shit. desu

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no gf

>A lot of loyalty for a homeless philosopher
>'Well, perhaps he's wondering why a king would block the sun of that homeless guy.'

There were sources, but they're now lost. Its not like there was nothing known about him, and Diogenes Laertius was the first to write about him centuries later. Laertius based his account on now lost sources. There are questions where the real person begins, and the character of Diogenes of Sinope ends. Someone of his status and mindset is too useful as a character to critique society and to explain ideas. This problem also occurs for Socrates to a lesser degree, and is very true of many figures.

>He is an obvious, self-serving collection of Stoic lies.

Diogenes Laërtius isn't even a stoic, so I'm not sure what you're getting at.

>he is literally the product of Stoics going WE WUZ SOCRATICS in order to distinguish their intellectual heritage.

Almost all the schools in Hellas were Socratic though. This makes them not terribly remarkable. Zeno is said to have studied under the cynics, thus you can trace their heritage back to socrates.

This is the only good Virgin vs Chad meme and it's like a decade old.

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Why didn't Alex just kill him when he had the chance?

>there were sources, but they're now lost

lmao, "t-t-trust me a-user, there were loads of contemporary sources & h-honest Laertius totally found and preserved their true content"

D Sinopes died in the 4th c. BCE, D Laertius died in the 3rd century CE. Not only are they separated by a huge stretch of time, but Laertius lived at the arse end of centuries of Stoics going WE WUZ SOCRATIC KANGZ.

>Laertius isn't a stoic

It was never about Laertius being a stoic, it was about Diogenes Sinopes being a stoic myth. Specifically, DS is allegedly a "cynic", and it is the Stoics who fantasised about being the descendants of "cynics". The content of the myths is also telling as to who is responsible.

>Almost all schools were Socratic though.

Sure, it is exceedingly obvious that much of Stoicism comes from Plato and Aristotle. For example, the metaphysics. I just mean that Stoics wanted to either distinguish themselves from others as having a distinct heritage within the history of the Socratics, or otherwise wanted to give their school some special prestige and mock people like Plato.

Fundamentally, Stoics are little bitches who get intensely jealous and upset when they are passed over in favour of Plato and Aristotle. So, they came up with an imaginary friend named Diogenes, a mentally ill homeless man that protects little Stoic bitches from their intellectual betters. Sad!

>reddit spacing
You really think anyone's reading that

>knows all about reddit
im sorry but you have terminal stoicism

It's good to know about your enemy.

The designation of "dog-like" started as an insult from the skeptics. The cynics embraced it and made turned it into their own thing.

Much like the words "baroque" and "nigger".

makes a cool tattoo

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God bless Paint

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The way he chose to live his life was a symptom of his philosophy, not the cause.

Because he was a big fan of Diogenes? Did you even read up on the encounter?
>Hey bro I am a huge fan and literally the strongest dude in the world, is there anything I can do for you?
>Ya get out of my sunlight.

This

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The approach of the modern cynic is entirely negative.
Distrustful of other's motives; thinks others are only interested in seeking advantages and material wealth. The modern cynic is typically a materialist and egoist himself.

Diogenes, whose worldview is pronounced kunikism, had the opposite view.

It didn't matter what others thought or did -- the purpose of life was living in harmony with nature, to attain a natural living through a regiment of discipline and a rejection of power, wealth, prestige and so on. It was all about the simple life.

Diogenes had no views about Alexander the Great, or his motives.

Alexander the Great offered him any favor -- Diogenes just wanted him to move out of the way and stop blocking the sunshine

>says anonymous barrel-dwelling source

toppest of keks.

he was cynical because he was a Cynic

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That’s like saying Jesus had plenty contemporairy sources: Peter, John, Luke..

And? Your point?

If there are extant texts written by Peter, John, and Luke wherein they say "we met a guy named Jesus", and those guys lived at the same time and in the same area as Jesus, then great.

I'm not a Christian, I don't know if we have written texts from Jesus' contemporaries that talk about Jesus. I assume Peter, John, and Luke are his students?

I would add that Aristophanes is different in his relationship to Socrates. Also, if you just object to the number 3, there are fragments of other students of Socrates preserved. I don't think that's your meaning, though.

The four canonical Gospels are anonymous, and don't internally make any claim of being written by his disciples. That's a later tradition.

Kek