John William Waterhouse, Diogenes (detail), 1882
1,044 words
Trans. Guillaume Durocher
Translator’s Note:
The following is drawn from Pierre Hadot, Qu’est-ce que la philosophie antique ? (Paris: Gallimard, 1995), pp. 170-74. The title is editorial.
Scholars still debate whether Antisthenes, a disciple of Socrates, was the founder of the Cynic movement. Read more …
The “Celestial Dog”
John William Waterhouse, Diogenes (1882)
872 words
Translated by Guillaume Durocher
One cannot know what a man must lose to have the courage to defy all conventions; one cannot know what Diogenes lost to become the man who allowed himself to do everything, who turned his most intimate thoughts into acts of a supernatural insolence, as would a god of knowledge, at once libidinous and pure. No one was more frank; an extreme case of sincerity and lucidity, as well as an example of what we could be if education and hypocrisy did not restrain our desires and actions.
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