![]() ![]() He was constantly striving for greater simplicity: when he saw a boy mopping up lentils with a piece of bread, it’s said he threw away his spoon. When someone asked him where he was from, he replied ‘I am a citizen of the world’. He ate, slept (and did everything else he needed to do) in the open, without shame or embarrassment. So Diogenes lived in the street, begging when he had to. A successful life, they held, is a virtuous life, lived in accordance with nature to live this kind of life requires only the most basic necessities. For the Cynics, the conventional markers of a successful life – wealth, privilege and power – were to be despised, rather than admired. Why dogs? One reason has to do with their rejection of conventional values. (Modern writers often put him in a barrel or even a tub.) Antisthenes and Diogenes were philosophers who called themselves dogs. If nothing else, he is famed for his choice of habitation – an empty wine jar. ![]() Antisthenes is said to have been the first Cynic, but Diogenes is perhaps the better known. The movement started with two men – Antisthenes and Diogenes of Sinope. The answer lies with philosophy, and, in particular, a philosophical movement that began in Ancient Greece. The origin of the word, though, might seem a little surprising: it derives from an ancient Greek word meaning 'dog-like’ or ‘doggy’. A cynic – as the word is used now – is a pessimist – at best world-weary, at worst ruthlessly unscrupulous. If someone calls you a cynic, they probably don’t mean to be kind. ![]()
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