Reading 1

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The primary source for the following text is

Book 6 of Diogenes Laertius’ Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers.

All section numbers are part of Book 6. For example, section 104, or [104], is 6.104.

This reading comes from the Cave’s

The Best of the Cynics: The Lives, Writings & Teachings of the Ancient Cynics

__________

Diogenes Laertius writes:

Let us add . . . the philosophical teachings that the Cynics held in common—if, that is, we decide the school is a kind of philosophy and not, as some declare, a way of life.

Whatever the case, like Ariston of Chios,[i]they were pleased to strip philosophy of logic and the study of nature in order to devote themselves solely to ethics. Moreover, what some record about Socrates, Diocles [ii] writes about Diogenes, having him say, “We must look into the good and bad done in our own households.”

Cynics also reject the subjects of a more general education. Anyway, Antisthenes asserted that those who had become sensible and moderate were better off not studying literature. Otherwise, he said, they may be perverted by strange things. [104] And so they strip philosophy of geometry and music and every subject of that kind.

Anyway, when someone showed Diogenes a clock, he said, “Its function is useful—one won’t be late for dinner.” And when a man played a piece of music for him, he said, “City-states and households are managed well by means of intelligence, not by the sounds of the harp and a flute’s whistle.”

Cynics hold that the goal of life is to live according to virtue. Antisthenes says as much in his Heracles—just like the Stoics.[iii] There is, after all, a certain community between the two schools. Therefore, some have said that Cynicism is a shortcut upon the path of virtue. Zeno of Citium passed his own life in this way.[iv]

Cynics also teach that men should live simply, procuring for themselves only necessary food and wearing only one piece of clothing, a worn garment. They think very little of wealth and reputation and noble birth. Some Cynics get by on herbs and vegetables and cold water. They live in any kind of shelter, or even large wine-jars, just as did Diogenes, who used to say that it was characteristic of the gods to need nothing, and that, consequently, when a man desires very little or nothing at all, he is like the gods.

[105] They further hold that virtue can be taught, just as Antisthenes declares in his Heracles.[v] Also, that once it is acquired it cannot be lost.

They also teach that the wise man is worthy of love. He is a man without fault, and a friend to similar men.

Cynics teach that we should entrust nothing to Fortune.

In agreement with Ariston of Chios,[vi] Cynics teach that whatever is between virtue and vice should be counted as indifferent, that is, neither good nor bad.

So ends Reading 1. See you in Reading 2, "Diogenes - Life & Accomplishments."

Notes

[i] Ariston of Chios was a third century bc Greek philosopher, who studied with Zeno of Citium (c. 334-262 BC), the founder of Stoicism. Zeno himself had practiced philosophy with the Cynic Crates of Thebes. This accounts, perhaps, for the mixture of Stoic and Cynic elements in Ariston’s own philosophy that emphasized a fairly stark ethics over epistemology (logic and the like) and physics or natural philosophy.

[ii] Diocles of Magnesia (second or first century BC) was an ancient historian and writer of biography and summaries. He concentrated on the views, sayings, and lives of the earliest philosophers.

[iii] Stoicism was an ancient school of philosophy founded by Zeno of Citium (c. 334-262 BC). The Stoics held that the good or happy life is one lived in conformity with nature. Such a life is, for human beings, a rational life, which is, in turn, a virtuous life. To learn more about ancient Stoicism, see The Best of Early Stoicism (Sugar Land: The Classics Cave, 2021).

[iv] Zeno of Citium (c. 334-262 BC) initially practiced philosophy, or a life of radical virtue, with the Cynic Crates of Thebes. He went on to found his own school, Stoicism, named after a covered colonnade (stoa) in Athens. Zeno taught that all of reality consists of matter and mind, or divine reason, which makes, orders, and governs that which is natural. To live well is to live naturally, which is to say rationally or virtuously.

[v] The question whether virtue can be taught was a very live one in the ancient world, with significant proponents on either side or somewhere in between. For more, see Hugh Mercer Curtler, “Can Virtue Be Taught?” Humanitas 7, no. 1 (1994): 43-50. For more on the various views of virtue (aretē), see Aretē: Excellence or Virtue—What the Ancient Greeks Thought and Said about Aretē (Sugar Land: The Classics Cave, 2021).

[vi] For Ariston of Chios, see the note about him above.