Diogenes also took after the dog in one other respect - his complete lack of embarrassment over performing bodily functions in public.Īlthough Socrates had previously identified himself as belonging to the world, rather than a city, Diogenes is credited with the first known use of the word “cosmopolitan”. When he was asked why he was called a dog, he replied. In his words, “Humans have complicated every simple gift of the gods.” The word “Cynic”, in fact, derives from the ancient Greek word for “dog-like”. So great was his austerity and simplicity that the Stoics would later claim him to be a wise man or “Sophos”. Diogenes maintained that all artificiality in society was incompatible with happiness and that moral conduct required a return to the simplicity of Nature. He took to toughening himself against nature. He had a reputation for sleeping and eating wherever he chose in a highly non-traditional fashion. He used his simple lifestyle and behaviour to criticise the social values and institutions of what he saw as a corrupt, confused society. He modelled himself on the example of Heracles and believed that virtue was better revealed in action than in theory. Diogenes was born in Sinope, an Ionian colony on the Black Sea coast of Anatolia in 404 BC to a banker and died at Corinth in 323 BC.Īfter being exiled because of financial problems that had beset his native town, he moved to Athens where he had the repute of a socio-cultural critic. Later, he acquired the title ‘the Cynic’. He is usually mentioned as a footnote to philosophy or treated as someone not deserving any serious consideration. But then I find him far too big to hold any opinion about him other than profound reverence. Notes from Underground is considered one of the first works of existentialist literature this has resulted in Dostoevsky being looked upon as both a philosopher and theologian. Many literary critics rate him as one of the greatest novelists in all of world literature, as several of his works are considered highly influential masterpieces. It needed extraordinary talent to write Crime and Punishment, Brothers Karamazov, and his novella Notes from Underground. Had he not been there, the contours of the disciplines of psychology and philosophy would have been markedly different. My all-time favourite has been Fyodor Dostoevsky. Nietzsche had the gall even to pronounce death of God. All of them were mavericks and didn’t flinch from mounting a serious challenge to the existing patterns of thought. Even Slavoj Zizek could not be ruled out. The challenge still remained as Jacque Rosseau, Voltaire, Karl Marx, Frederick Nietzsche, Jean Paul Sartre, Michel Foucault being serious contenders. Thus, I sought refuge in taking my pick from the Western tradition of thinkers and philosophers. The entertainment of fascination for someone necessitates traits that are usually associated with an ordinary (fallible) human. Prophets, saints and sufis and the aura they epitomise, call for a formalised relationship. An instantaneous response could be naming one of the sufis like Rumi or Shams Tabriz but such people incur reverence instead of admiration or fascination. Obviously, the thinkers sanctioned by the Divine Will didn’t count. I found myself in a flat spin when asked about the most fascinating/ interesting chearacter that I thought ever existed in the entire history of thinkers.
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