The philosopher Diogenes (c.412-323 BCE) was described by Plato as ‘a Socrates gone mad'. He lived in a barrel & believed man must embrace nature & reject shame. He openly masturbated in public, saying “If only it were so easy to soothe hunger by rubbing an empty belly”.
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Diogenes rejected all of the norms of “civilised” behavior. He urinated, defecated, and masturbated in public. Later images of him often showed him carrying a lamp in the day, to symbolise his futile search for an honest man.
He was hugely influential and inspired a school of philosophy called the cynics. The name of comes from the Greek κυνικός (kunikos), meaning “dog-like”.
Some of his famous quotations include, “It is not that I am mad, it is only that my head is different from yours.”
“In a rich man's house there is no place to spit but his face.”
“Of what use is a philosopher who doesn't hurt anyone’s feelings?”
“What I like to drink most is wine that belongs to others.”
When he saw the child of a famous courtesan, whom he compared to a "deadly honeyed potion," throwing stones at a crowd, he cried out: "Take care you don't hit your father."
When he was criticised for being drunk in a tavern, he said that he also had his hair cut in a barber's shop.
When the 20yo Alexander the Great visited Corinth in 336 BCE, it is said he went to meet 70yo Diogenes. In the most famous account of this meeting, Alexander stood over Diogenes & asked what he could do for him. To which the philosopher replied, “you can stop blocking my sun.”
Legend has it that Diogenes and Alexander died on the same day in 323 BCE - one having brought Greek civilisation to the world, the other having destroyed it entirely.
Today, “Diogenes Syndrome”, also known as senile squalor syndrome, is a disorder characterized by extreme self-neglect, domestic squalor, social withdrawal, apathy, compulsive hoarding of garbage or animals, plus lack of shame.
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