3/10/2023 0 Comments Philosopher diogenesWhen the auctioneer asked where he was from he said “I am a citizen of the world”, literally a cosmopolitan. One day, during a sea voyage, the Dog was kidnapped by vicious pirates, thrown in chains, and sold at a slave auction. He cried out “Oh look, the big thieves are leading away the little thief.” He said the love of money is the root of all evil, over three hundred years before the New Testament. Once he saw the officials of a temple dragging out a boy who had stolen a donation bowl. But when he heard people talking about religious mumbo jumbo or their love of money and material possessions, he remembered how foolish and gullible we all are. When he saw the work of philosophers, physicians, and navigators, he was in awe of man’s intellectual capacity. He said that humans are both the most intelligent and most foolish of all creature. And he was always getting beaten up in the street. He said he wished it were as easy to relieve hunger by rubbing his belly as it was to relieve sexual desire by rubbing his penis. And he liked to masturbate in the public marketplace. He tied a rope around the neck of a bottle and used to walk it like a dog through the busy potters’ district, ignoring people who laughed at him. He called our hero “Socrates… gone mad!”ĭiogenes also trained himself and his students in shamelessness. He went round to his house and trampled on his expensive carpets, saying “Thus I trample on Plato’s vanity!” Surprisingly, Plato hated this. And he ridiculed the famous philosopher Plato’s lectures as long-winded nonsense. The Dog exclaimed “A child has beaten me at my own game!” and smashed his bowl. One day he saw a little boy drinking from his cupped hands. By day he begged for food, at night he slept rough on the porches of public buildings, using his cloak as a blanket. So the Dog also trained himself to live with minimal possessions : a tattered cloak, a knapsack, a clay bowl, and a wooden staff to defend himself. Antisthenes therefore concluded that the only way to become truly rich is by decreasing our needs rather than increasing our possessions. But as our possessions grow our desires keep growing, and we’re never really satisfied this way. Most people try to become rich by accumulating more money and possessions than they need. ![]() Antisthenes defined being rich as having more than you need. ![]() ![]() However, some say he heard about a wise philosopher called Antisthenes, one of Socrates’ followers, who made a virtue out of poverty. The Dog wandered to Athens, a penniless exile without a friend in the world. He was caught and banished forever from his home city. Funnily enough the authorities didn’t approve. So he literally rendered piles of silver coins unusable. According to legend, the Delphic Oracle, the priestess of Apollo, prophesied that he would gain a reputation for defacing the currency. He was the son of a wealthy banker, in charge of the city’s coinage. The Dog came from Sinope, on the Black Sea coast.
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