General

Diogenes of Sinope

Diogenes was a greek philosopher who were born at either 412 or 404 BCE, it is somewhat unclear, and he died 323 BCE. He is said to be one of the founders of cynicism and is basically one of the coolest philosophers I've heard of. He lived like a dog, and Kyon = Dog, Kyonikos = Dog-like, that is possibly where "cynicism" comes from.

He basically lived the cynics life. He was a wiseman and could easily live a great wealthy life, but he chose to be homeless. He made some things that were unheard of in his time, for example, he ate his food on the market where he bought it, or pleasured himself in the middle of the market place. When he did pleasure himself, he was taken to court, where his response simply was "If only it were so easy to soothe my hunger by rubbing my belly.". He is also said to have gone through the streets, in day-light, with a lamp, when asked why, he responded "I'm looking for an honest man". He was of the core conviction that we should not put ourselves above nature, but besides it, and live in harmony with it. These principles was the opposite of Plato's who tried to elevate us above nature. He for example said that we should be more like dogs, in opposition to Plato who saw us as more than dogs, because they were gently happy, they were not obsessed with materialism and lived in the present.

The coolest thing, that I admire of him, is when he encountered Alexander the Great, at that time, the most powerful man.

Alexander had heard of this great wise man, and went to meet him, when he found him, he got suprised to see, that this wiseman was looking around in the garbage. Alexander asked him what he was doing, and Diogenes responded "I'm looking for the bones of your father, but can distinguish them from the bones of the slaves". Take a note that Alexander had some serious father issues. Diogenes just insulted Alexanders father, Alexander, who could get him killed without even saying a word. But instead of being insulted, probably because he have had Aristotles as a philosophy tutor, he sat down and talked with Diogenes. When they were done, Alexander was so impressed, that he told Diogenes, that he would give him anything he wanted, power, women, money, basically anything. Diogenes response "Please, stand out of my sunlight". It is said that Alexanders men laughed at Diogenes right here, and Alexander turned around and said to them:"Were I not Alexander the Great, I would be Diogenes". This is the worlds most powerful man, saying that he was envious upon a homeless man.

Now, tell me about your favorite philosopher :]