WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.580 Welcome back to the Deep Dive. Today we are, 00:00:02.680 --> 00:00:05.620 well, we are not just stepping out of the box. 00:00:05.700 --> 00:00:08.099 We are smashing the box, setting it on fire, 00:00:08.220 --> 00:00:10.699 and then probably peeing on the ashes to put 00:00:10.699 --> 00:00:12.259 it out. That's a pretty good summary, actually. 00:00:12.400 --> 00:00:14.960 We're talking about a man who looked at the entire 00:00:14.960 --> 00:00:19.379 elaborate structure of civilized society, money. 00:00:20.179 --> 00:00:23.379 Status, real estate, manners, even the clothes 00:00:23.379 --> 00:00:26.600 on our backs and just decided it was all a giant, 00:00:26.620 --> 00:00:28.980 ridiculous performance. A performance he wanted 00:00:28.980 --> 00:00:32.240 absolutely no part of. None. Zero. It's really 00:00:32.240 --> 00:00:34.460 the ultimate case study in what happens when 00:00:34.460 --> 00:00:36.820 you take a philosophical idea and you just you 00:00:36.820 --> 00:00:40.179 push it to its absolute logical and frankly, 00:00:40.240 --> 00:00:43.119 somewhat terrifying extreme. It is. Yeah. We 00:00:43.119 --> 00:00:45.119 usually think of philosophy as something. You 00:00:45.119 --> 00:00:47.259 know, soft. Something that happens in a quiet 00:00:47.259 --> 00:00:49.500 classroom with a chalkboard or in a library. 00:00:49.700 --> 00:00:51.299 Right, with the smell of old paper. Exactly. 00:00:51.600 --> 00:00:54.740 But for the subject of today's deep dive, philosophy 00:00:54.740 --> 00:00:57.520 was a full contact sport. It was played out in 00:00:57.520 --> 00:00:59.659 the dirt, in the street, with, you know, high 00:00:59.659 --> 00:01:02.500 stakes and absolutely zero safety net. That's 00:01:02.500 --> 00:01:04.780 it, exactly. And to get us into the right headspace, 00:01:04.980 --> 00:01:07.599 I want you to erase the image of a university 00:01:07.599 --> 00:01:10.560 professor from your mind. I want you to picture 00:01:10.560 --> 00:01:14.209 this instead. You are walking through the bustling 00:01:14.209 --> 00:01:17.609 marketplace, the Agora of ancient Athens. It's 00:01:17.609 --> 00:01:19.750 the center of the intellectual universe. The 00:01:19.750 --> 00:01:21.750 heart of everything. You have politicians debating, 00:01:22.109 --> 00:01:24.969 merchants selling olives. The Parthenon is gleaming 00:01:24.969 --> 00:01:27.329 up on the hill. And there, right in the middle 00:01:27.329 --> 00:01:31.290 of all the foot traffic, is this. massive ceramic 00:01:31.290 --> 00:01:35.349 jar lying on its side. And inside this jar lives 00:01:35.349 --> 00:01:38.549 an old man. And he's not just sitting there quietly, 00:01:38.689 --> 00:01:41.290 is he? No, not at all. In the winter, you might 00:01:41.290 --> 00:01:43.430 see him hugging frozen statues of the gods just 00:01:43.430 --> 00:01:45.129 to toughen himself up against the cold. Wow. 00:01:45.390 --> 00:01:47.750 In the summer, he's rolling around in scorching 00:01:47.750 --> 00:01:50.409 hot sand. He owns nothing. I mean, nothing but 00:01:50.409 --> 00:01:52.730 a dirty cloak, a wooden staff, and maybe a little 00:01:52.730 --> 00:01:55.319 leather pouch for food. And he has... barking 00:01:55.319 --> 00:01:57.640 at people. Literally barking. Literally barking 00:01:57.640 --> 00:01:59.599 like a dog. And yet, and this is the crucial 00:01:59.599 --> 00:02:02.180 part, this isn't just some random person suffering 00:02:02.180 --> 00:02:04.480 from a mental health crisis who's been abandoned 00:02:04.480 --> 00:02:07.579 by society. This is Diogenes of Sinope. The man 00:02:07.579 --> 00:02:09.939 himself. He's one of the founders of the school 00:02:09.939 --> 00:02:12.439 of cynicism. And despite living in the street, 00:02:12.639 --> 00:02:15.520 he went, you know, toe to toe with Plato. He 00:02:15.520 --> 00:02:18.360 insulted Alexander the Great to his face and 00:02:18.360 --> 00:02:22.039 lives to tell the tale. He really did. Diogenes 00:02:22.039 --> 00:02:24.139 is one of those figures where the legend is so 00:02:24.139 --> 00:02:27.039 loud, it almost drowns out the actual human being. 00:02:27.180 --> 00:02:29.439 When I first heard about him, the cartoon image 00:02:29.439 --> 00:02:32.300 in my head was just the guy in the barrel. That's 00:02:32.300 --> 00:02:34.379 the classic trope. But looking at the source 00:02:34.379 --> 00:02:36.280 material you brought today, we need to make a 00:02:36.280 --> 00:02:38.120 correction right out of the gate. Because it 00:02:38.120 --> 00:02:40.719 wasn't a barrel, was it? It definitely wasn't 00:02:40.719 --> 00:02:42.699 a barrel, no. That's a very common misconception 00:02:42.699 --> 00:02:46.000 that comes from much later Roman art in translations. 00:02:46.280 --> 00:02:49.580 Okay. We have to remember barrels. Those wooden 00:02:49.580 --> 00:02:51.659 casks held together with metal hoops that we 00:02:51.659 --> 00:02:53.860 associate with, you know, whiskey or wine aging, 00:02:54.020 --> 00:02:56.460 they didn't really exist in ancient Greece during 00:02:56.460 --> 00:02:58.400 this time. The technology just wasn't there yet. 00:02:58.539 --> 00:03:00.580 It wasn't. Source materials is very specific. 00:03:00.819 --> 00:03:03.840 He lived in a pithos. A pithos. Okay, let's unpack 00:03:03.840 --> 00:03:06.439 that. Because living in a jar sounds like something 00:03:06.439 --> 00:03:08.599 out of a nursery rhyme, not a serious housing 00:03:08.599 --> 00:03:12.259 strategy. What exactly is a pithos? So think 00:03:12.259 --> 00:03:14.199 of it as the industrial storage container of 00:03:14.199 --> 00:03:17.479 the ancient world. It's a massive ceramic vessel 00:03:17.479 --> 00:03:20.319 made of thick, heavy clay. That's not glass. 00:03:20.659 --> 00:03:23.759 Oh, God, no. Earthenware. They were used to store 00:03:23.759 --> 00:03:26.659 things in bulk, things like grain, olive oil, 00:03:26.719 --> 00:03:29.099 wine, and they were often as tall as a person. 00:03:29.219 --> 00:03:31.460 So when we say he lived in a jar, don't picture 00:03:31.460 --> 00:03:34.620 a cookie jar. Picture a human -sized hard clay 00:03:34.620 --> 00:03:37.039 tunnel lying on its side. That's a much better 00:03:37.039 --> 00:03:39.080 image. Which, I mean, practically speaking, sounds 00:03:39.080 --> 00:03:41.379 absolutely miserable. Oh, it would be awful. 00:03:42.120 --> 00:03:44.240 Utterly awful. Just think about the acoustics. 00:03:44.240 --> 00:03:46.340 Think about the temperature swings. Exactly. 00:03:46.439 --> 00:03:49.740 In the Athenian summer, that clay would bake 00:03:49.740 --> 00:03:52.740 like an oven. You'd be roasting. And in the winter, 00:03:52.800 --> 00:03:54.960 it would be like sleeping on an iceberg. It offers 00:03:54.960 --> 00:03:57.439 shelter from the wind maybe and the rain, but 00:03:57.439 --> 00:04:00.539 zero insulation. But that was the point. That's 00:04:00.539 --> 00:04:03.460 what we have to understand. His mission, if we 00:04:03.460 --> 00:04:05.400 want to call it a mission, wasn't just to be 00:04:05.400 --> 00:04:07.379 homeless because he was down on his luck. It 00:04:07.379 --> 00:04:10.080 was a calculated daily performance art piece. 00:04:10.639 --> 00:04:13.860 A philosophical statement. A huge one. He was 00:04:13.860 --> 00:04:16.180 challenging the very fabric of social norms. 00:04:16.399 --> 00:04:18.860 He wanted to prove that what we consider necessary 00:04:18.860 --> 00:04:23.500 for a happy life, a roof, a bed, privacy, all 00:04:23.500 --> 00:04:26.480 of it, is actually just baggage. And that is 00:04:26.480 --> 00:04:28.459 what we're going to explore today. How does a 00:04:28.459 --> 00:04:31.100 guy go from being the son of a wealthy banker, 00:04:31.279 --> 00:04:34.699 which, spoiler alert, he was, to a philosophical 00:04:34.699 --> 00:04:37.000 beggar shouting at the most powerful men in the 00:04:37.000 --> 00:04:39.149 world? It's quite a journey. We're going to look 00:04:39.149 --> 00:04:41.689 at his origin story, which involves a massive 00:04:41.689 --> 00:04:44.329 financial crime. We're going to look at his rivalry 00:04:44.329 --> 00:04:46.930 with Plato, his time as a slave. Yes, he was 00:04:46.930 --> 00:04:49.370 sold by pirates. That really happened. It's an 00:04:49.370 --> 00:04:52.769 incredible story. And his bizarre debt. But I 00:04:52.769 --> 00:04:54.790 want to start with that origin story. Because 00:04:54.790 --> 00:04:57.269 Diogenes didn't start out in the gutter. He was 00:04:57.269 --> 00:04:59.410 actually born into the 1%, wasn't he? He was, 00:04:59.529 --> 00:05:02.329 absolutely. Diogenes was born in Sinope, which 00:05:02.329 --> 00:05:04.550 is modern day seen up in Turkey. It's right there 00:05:04.550 --> 00:05:06.899 on the southern coast of the Black Sea. And Sinope 00:05:06.899 --> 00:05:09.720 wasn't some, you know, backwater village. Not 00:05:09.720 --> 00:05:12.639 at all. It was a thriving, wealthy Greek colony. 00:05:12.779 --> 00:05:15.220 A major trade hub. It was on the map. So there's 00:05:15.220 --> 00:05:17.240 a lot of money flowing through there. Tons of 00:05:17.240 --> 00:05:20.540 it. And Diogenes was right at the tap. His father, 00:05:20.720 --> 00:05:24.680 a man named Hysesias, was a trapezius. A trapezius. 00:05:24.939 --> 00:05:27.279 It sounds like a trapeze artist, but I'm guessing 00:05:27.279 --> 00:05:30.100 it's a little less acrobatic. Little less physical, 00:05:30.279 --> 00:05:32.860 but probably just as high stakes. It means he 00:05:32.860 --> 00:05:35.899 was a banker or a money changer. Ah. In a busy 00:05:35.899 --> 00:05:39.220 port city like Sinope, this was a crucial state 00:05:39.220 --> 00:05:41.759 -sanctioned role. You have traders coming in 00:05:41.759 --> 00:05:44.300 from all over the Mediterranean, all with different 00:05:44.300 --> 00:05:46.639 currencies. The trapezius is the guy authorized 00:05:46.639 --> 00:05:49.480 to exchange that foreign money for local coin. 00:05:49.850 --> 00:05:52.170 So his dad was essentially running the mint, 00:05:52.329 --> 00:05:54.529 or at least a major branch of it. Something like 00:05:54.529 --> 00:05:57.250 that, yes. This implies that Diogenes grew up 00:05:57.250 --> 00:05:59.550 with significant privilege. Right, so he's not 00:05:59.550 --> 00:06:01.449 scraping by. He's got everything he could want. 00:06:01.649 --> 00:06:04.250 Far from it. Yeah. The sources tell us he received 00:06:04.250 --> 00:06:06.250 a private education in things like literature, 00:06:06.569 --> 00:06:09.850 horsemanship, and athletics. These were the absolute 00:06:09.850 --> 00:06:12.350 luxuries of the rich. He was part of the establishment. 00:06:12.769 --> 00:06:15.670 So, I have to stop you there. He's a rich kid. 00:06:16.110 --> 00:06:18.269 He has the education, the money, the status. 00:06:18.649 --> 00:06:21.389 He's totally set up for a comfortable life running 00:06:21.389 --> 00:06:24.269 the family business. Why would a guy with a silver 00:06:24.269 --> 00:06:26.730 spoon in his mouth decide to burn it all down? 00:06:26.889 --> 00:06:28.449 I mean, that's the question, isn't it? Yeah. 00:06:28.829 --> 00:06:31.430 Usually rich kids might rebel a little, you know, 00:06:31.430 --> 00:06:33.629 grow their hair long, maybe join a band. But 00:06:33.629 --> 00:06:36.050 they don't usually end up living in industrial 00:06:36.050 --> 00:06:38.129 waste containers. It's the question that drives 00:06:38.129 --> 00:06:41.310 his whole life story. And the answer, or at least 00:06:41.310 --> 00:06:43.709 the beginning of the answer, starts with a scandal. 00:06:44.240 --> 00:06:47.660 A massive life -altering scandal. Okay. And it 00:06:47.660 --> 00:06:49.560 centers on the very thing his father managed. 00:06:50.300 --> 00:06:52.839 The money. Sometime around the mid -4th century 00:06:52.839 --> 00:06:56.540 B .C., Biogenes and his father, Hycesis, were 00:06:56.540 --> 00:06:59.660 accused of adulterating the currency. And adulterating 00:06:59.660 --> 00:07:01.560 the currency. That sounds like a very polite 00:07:01.560 --> 00:07:03.740 way of saying counterfeiting. It's in that ballpark, 00:07:03.800 --> 00:07:06.879 yeah. It's a bit more specific. It means debasing 00:07:06.879 --> 00:07:09.339 the coinage so... altering its metal content, 00:07:09.560 --> 00:07:12.420 maybe mixing in cheaper metals, or defacing the 00:07:12.420 --> 00:07:14.699 official stamp. So you're destroying public trust 00:07:14.699 --> 00:07:17.379 in the money supply? Exactly. It's a huge crime. 00:07:17.939 --> 00:07:20.339 Now, the historical record is a bit divided on 00:07:20.339 --> 00:07:22.759 exactly how it went down. Some sources say the 00:07:22.759 --> 00:07:25.540 father did it and Diogenes was just an accomplice. 00:07:25.600 --> 00:07:28.339 Some say Diogenes did it and fled. And what happened 00:07:28.339 --> 00:07:31.560 to the dad? Well, one version of the story says 00:07:31.560 --> 00:07:34.399 Hysesias died in prison while Diogenes managed 00:07:34.399 --> 00:07:37.569 to escape. The details are murky. This isn't 00:07:37.569 --> 00:07:40.149 just a rumor, right? Do we have any physical 00:07:40.149 --> 00:07:43.269 proof that this happened? We do. And this is 00:07:43.269 --> 00:07:45.269 what makes it so fascinating. Archaeology actually 00:07:45.269 --> 00:07:48.269 backs this up. Excavations have found coins from 00:07:48.269 --> 00:07:51.550 Sinope from that specific time period that were 00:07:51.550 --> 00:07:54.930 defaced, deliberately damaged with large chisel 00:07:54.930 --> 00:07:57.470 marks. Wow. So someone was systematically destroying 00:07:57.470 --> 00:08:00.560 the value of... the currency someone was yeah 00:08:00.560 --> 00:08:02.819 but here is where the story gets really really 00:08:02.819 --> 00:08:05.899 interesting to me okay there's this legend and 00:08:05.899 --> 00:08:07.819 with diogenes it's always hard to separate the 00:08:07.819 --> 00:08:09.839 man from the myth that he didn't do it out of 00:08:09.839 --> 00:08:12.100 greed he wasn't trying to get rich he claimed 00:08:12.100 --> 00:08:14.930 he was following orders orders from who His dad. 00:08:15.290 --> 00:08:17.649 From a god. Oh, come on. That's the famous Oracle 00:08:17.649 --> 00:08:21.370 legend. The story goes that Diogenes, maybe feeling 00:08:21.370 --> 00:08:23.790 unfulfilled or confused by his comfortable life 00:08:23.790 --> 00:08:26.769 in Sinope, went to the Oracle. This could have 00:08:26.769 --> 00:08:29.490 been a Delphi or Delos. Yeah. The sources differ. 00:08:29.689 --> 00:08:32.539 Right. And he asks the classic question that 00:08:32.539 --> 00:08:35.679 every young man asks in a Greek myth. What should 00:08:35.679 --> 00:08:38.480 I do to gain the greatest reputation? A very 00:08:38.480 --> 00:08:41.899 ambitious question. Very. And the Oracle, who 00:08:41.899 --> 00:08:45.179 is famously cryptic, high on volcanic vapors 00:08:45.179 --> 00:08:47.399 and shouting riddles, gave him an answer. And 00:08:47.399 --> 00:08:49.460 what did she say? She replied with a very specific 00:08:49.460 --> 00:08:52.279 phrase, adulterate the currency. And he just 00:08:52.279 --> 00:08:54.519 took that literally. He went home, grabbed a 00:08:54.519 --> 00:08:56.740 chisel and started hacking away at the coins 00:08:56.740 --> 00:08:59.379 in his dad's bank. According to one version of 00:08:59.379 --> 00:09:01.679 the legend, yes, he took it at face value. But 00:09:01.679 --> 00:09:03.419 this is where we have to look at the Greek language 00:09:03.419 --> 00:09:06.379 to understand the deeper philosophical meaning 00:09:06.379 --> 00:09:08.820 that he would later embrace. Okay. The phrase 00:09:08.820 --> 00:09:12.419 used is perikarotene to nomisma. Perikarotene 00:09:12.419 --> 00:09:14.600 to nomisma. Let's break that down. So nomisma 00:09:14.600 --> 00:09:17.460 means currency or coin. That's the straightforward 00:09:17.460 --> 00:09:20.240 part. But it shares the exact same root as the 00:09:20.240 --> 00:09:24.990 word nomos. And nomos is what? Law. Custom? Law, 00:09:25.190 --> 00:09:28.149 custom, convention, the rules of society, all 00:09:28.149 --> 00:09:29.789 of that stuff. Oh, I see where this is going. 00:09:29.909 --> 00:09:32.129 It's a pun. It's a brilliant, world -changing 00:09:32.129 --> 00:09:34.549 pun. The Oracle wasn't telling him to commit 00:09:34.549 --> 00:09:37.389 financial fraud. She was giving him a philosophical 00:09:37.389 --> 00:09:41.509 mission. Debase the customs. Revalue the values. 00:09:41.669 --> 00:09:43.730 She was telling him to take the things society 00:09:43.730 --> 00:09:47.250 values, reputation, wealth, etiquette, all the 00:09:47.250 --> 00:09:50.929 rules of polite society, and prove that they 00:09:50.929 --> 00:09:54.000 are fake. That they have no inherent worth. Exactly. 00:09:54.259 --> 00:09:56.679 He later claimed that he had misunderstood the 00:09:56.679 --> 00:09:58.860 oracle at first. He wasn't supposed to attack 00:09:58.860 --> 00:10:01.120 the metal coins. He was supposed to attack the 00:10:01.120 --> 00:10:03.720 currency of human behavior and social norms. 00:10:03.940 --> 00:10:06.419 That is such a powerful metaphor. The idea that 00:10:06.419 --> 00:10:08.720 our social rules are just a currency we've all 00:10:08.720 --> 00:10:11.340 agreed to pretend has value. Like wearing a tie 00:10:11.340 --> 00:10:13.639 to work or saying bless you when someone sneezes 00:10:13.639 --> 00:10:15.879 or shaking hands. It's all just fiat currency. 00:10:16.240 --> 00:10:18.860 And Diogenes' life's work became exposing that 00:10:18.860 --> 00:10:21.159 inflation. showing everyone that the emperor 00:10:21.159 --> 00:10:23.659 has no clothes. But before he could become that 00:10:23.659 --> 00:10:25.899 philosopher, he had to face the consequences 00:10:25.899 --> 00:10:28.340 of the literal crime. Right, because the people 00:10:28.340 --> 00:10:30.399 of Sinope weren't interested in his philosophical 00:10:30.399 --> 00:10:33.080 interpretation. They just saw a guy wrecking 00:10:33.080 --> 00:10:35.059 their money. And the consequences were severe. 00:10:36.240 --> 00:10:38.360 Catastrophic, really. He was exiled. He lost 00:10:38.360 --> 00:10:40.799 his citizenship. We have to stop and really think 00:10:40.799 --> 00:10:43.460 about what that meant in ancient Greece. It wasn't 00:10:43.460 --> 00:10:45.820 just like moving to a new town and getting a 00:10:45.820 --> 00:10:48.980 new apartment. No. Oh, no. In the ancient world, 00:10:49.440 --> 00:10:53.559 Your identity was 100 % tied to your city -state, 00:10:53.740 --> 00:10:56.940 your polis. You weren't just Diogenes. You were 00:10:56.940 --> 00:10:59.879 Diogenes of Sinope. To be in exile was to be 00:10:59.879 --> 00:11:03.220 a non -person. A ghost. Yeah. You had no legal 00:11:03.220 --> 00:11:05.559 protections. You couldn't own property. Crucially, 00:11:05.620 --> 00:11:08.139 you couldn't be buried with your ancestors, which 00:11:08.139 --> 00:11:11.179 was a huge spiritual crisis for a Greek. It was 00:11:11.179 --> 00:11:13.259 often considered a fate worse than death. People 00:11:13.259 --> 00:11:15.179 would commit suicide rather than face exile. 00:11:15.659 --> 00:11:18.159 They would. But this is where we see the first 00:11:18.159 --> 00:11:21.200 real spark of the Diogenes we come to know. He 00:11:21.200 --> 00:11:23.379 didn't crumble. He didn't fall into despair. 00:11:23.639 --> 00:11:26.259 No. Instead of being crushed by this, he completely 00:11:26.259 --> 00:11:28.200 flipped the script. There's a famous exchange 00:11:28.200 --> 00:11:30.379 where someone was mocking him later in life, 00:11:30.419 --> 00:11:33.240 saying, the people of Snope have condemned you 00:11:33.240 --> 00:11:36.080 to banishment. And what did he say? Diogenes 00:11:36.080 --> 00:11:38.700 just shot back, and I have condemned them to 00:11:38.700 --> 00:11:40.860 stay in Snoping. That's a brilliant comeback. 00:11:41.159 --> 00:11:44.039 You're not firing me. I'm firing you. It's pure 00:11:44.039 --> 00:11:47.710 confidence. He claims the exile liberated him. 00:11:48.269 --> 00:11:50.730 The historian Plutarch notes that the hardships 00:11:50.730 --> 00:11:53.450 of exile are what actually forged him into a 00:11:53.450 --> 00:11:55.950 philosopher. He realized that if you have nothing 00:11:55.950 --> 00:11:59.029 to lose, you are truly free. If the worst thing 00:11:59.029 --> 00:12:01.909 society can do is kick you out and you decide 00:12:01.909 --> 00:12:04.210 you don't care, you become untouchable. Their 00:12:04.210 --> 00:12:07.190 power over you is gone. So he leaves Sinope, 00:12:07.210 --> 00:12:10.509 presumably in disgrace. And he heads for the 00:12:10.509 --> 00:12:12.950 intellectual center of the world, Athens. And 00:12:12.950 --> 00:12:14.929 he's not alone, right? At least not at first. 00:12:15.090 --> 00:12:16.929 Well, there is a report that he had a slave with 00:12:16.929 --> 00:12:19.269 him named Mains. This is another really interesting 00:12:19.269 --> 00:12:21.230 pivot point. Yeah, you'd think a man about to 00:12:21.230 --> 00:12:23.330 preach a philosophy of radical poverty wouldn't 00:12:23.330 --> 00:12:25.950 have a slave. Well, remember, he came from wealth. 00:12:26.190 --> 00:12:28.690 She likely brought Mains with him from Sindope. 00:12:29.429 --> 00:12:31.830 But shortly after they arrived in Athens, Mains 00:12:31.830 --> 00:12:34.490 ran away. And most slave owners at that time 00:12:34.490 --> 00:12:36.190 would have been furious. They would have sent 00:12:36.190 --> 00:12:39.269 a search party, put up notices. That's lost property. 00:12:39.409 --> 00:12:42.190 That's money walking out the door. Diogenes' 00:12:42.230 --> 00:12:45.029 reaction was the complete opposite. He just laughed. 00:12:45.169 --> 00:12:48.629 He laughed. He laughed. And he famously said, 00:12:48.830 --> 00:12:53.029 if manes can live without Diogenes, why not Diogenes 00:12:53.029 --> 00:12:55.389 without manes? Wait, I want to pause on that. 00:12:55.470 --> 00:12:58.289 That is such a radical thought for 400 BC. He's 00:12:58.289 --> 00:13:00.610 basically saying the master needs the slave more 00:13:00.610 --> 00:13:03.070 than the slave needs the master. It is fundamental 00:13:03.070 --> 00:13:06.870 to his entire philosophy. He realized that by 00:13:06.870 --> 00:13:09.289 relying on a slave, the master is actually the 00:13:09.289 --> 00:13:11.769 one who is enslaved. You're enslaved to your 00:13:11.769 --> 00:13:13.509 own helplessness. If you need someone else to 00:13:13.509 --> 00:13:16.210 cook for you, dress you, fetch your water, you 00:13:16.210 --> 00:13:18.009 aren't the master. You're a dependent. You're 00:13:18.009 --> 00:13:20.409 weak. The slave who can survive on their own 00:13:20.409 --> 00:13:22.840 is actually more free than you are. So Maines 00:13:22.840 --> 00:13:25.200 runs off. And sadly, one source says he was eventually 00:13:25.200 --> 00:13:29.000 eaten by wolves, which is a tragic end. But Diogenes 00:13:29.000 --> 00:13:32.480 is now alone in Athens. He's poor. He's an outcast. 00:13:32.580 --> 00:13:34.940 And he starts looking for a teacher. Right. And 00:13:34.940 --> 00:13:37.360 he sets his sights on a man named Antisthenes. 00:13:37.399 --> 00:13:40.779 And who was Antisthenes? Antisthenes was a heavy 00:13:40.779 --> 00:13:42.679 hitter in the intellectual scene. He was a former 00:13:42.679 --> 00:13:45.539 student of Socrates himself. He was already preaching 00:13:45.539 --> 00:13:49.220 a kind of proto -cynicism, living simply valuing 00:13:49.220 --> 00:13:51.779 virtue over wealth. So he was the logical choice. 00:13:52.159 --> 00:13:55.659 He was. But Antisthenes wasn't exactly looking 00:13:55.659 --> 00:13:58.600 for new students, and certainly not a scruffy 00:13:58.600 --> 00:14:01.899 criminal exile like Diogenes. I read that Antisthenes 00:14:01.899 --> 00:14:04.159 actually tried to beat him away with a stick. 00:14:04.460 --> 00:14:07.330 He did. The story goes he was very reluctant. 00:14:07.529 --> 00:14:10.429 He found Diogenes annoying and physically threatened 00:14:10.429 --> 00:14:13.269 him with his staff. But Diogenes just lowered 00:14:13.269 --> 00:14:15.789 his head and said, Strike, for you will find 00:14:15.789 --> 00:14:17.909 no wood hard enough to keep me away from you 00:14:17.909 --> 00:14:20.009 so long as I think you have something to say. 00:14:20.169 --> 00:14:22.730 That is incredible persistence. It's also a little 00:14:22.730 --> 00:14:25.549 bit scary. It is. It shows that Diogenes was 00:14:25.549 --> 00:14:27.850 hungry for truth in a way that just completely 00:14:27.850 --> 00:14:30.679 disregarded his own physical safety. And it worked, 00:14:30.700 --> 00:14:32.899 by the way. Antisthenes eventually gave in and 00:14:32.899 --> 00:14:35.360 accepted him. And Diogenes really took Antisthenes' 00:14:35.440 --> 00:14:38.220 teachings and just turbocharged them. He did. 00:14:39.079 --> 00:14:41.419 Antisthenes taught that virtue is the only good, 00:14:41.539 --> 00:14:44.759 that social status is meaningless. Diogenes took 00:14:44.759 --> 00:14:47.179 that theory and turned it into a full -time, 00:14:47.240 --> 00:14:50.399 24 -7 lifestyle. And this brings us to the comparisons 00:14:50.399 --> 00:14:53.759 with Socrates. You know, Socrates was the gadfly 00:14:53.759 --> 00:14:56.559 of Athens, stinging the horse of the state to 00:14:56.559 --> 00:14:58.980 keep it awake. He was annoying, sure, but he 00:14:58.980 --> 00:15:00.960 was sort of polite about it. He used questions. 00:15:01.139 --> 00:15:04.700 But Plato, who was Diogenes' contemporary and 00:15:04.700 --> 00:15:07.519 chief philosophical rival, had a different description 00:15:07.519 --> 00:15:10.389 for Diogenes. Yes. Plato called him Socrates 00:15:10.389 --> 00:15:14.009 gone mad. Socrates gone mad. That is such a perfect 00:15:14.009 --> 00:15:16.769 backhanded compliment. It's like saying you're 00:15:16.769 --> 00:15:18.769 a genius, but you're also a complete lunatic. 00:15:18.870 --> 00:15:21.250 It's incredibly accurate. Socrates questioned 00:15:21.250 --> 00:15:24.269 people politely in the Agora, used logic, irony, 00:15:24.470 --> 00:15:27.470 the Socratic method. Diogenes used shock tactics. 00:15:27.690 --> 00:15:29.629 He didn't ask questions. He made statements, 00:15:29.850 --> 00:15:32.470 often by, you know, throwing things. Or by barking. 00:15:32.690 --> 00:15:35.750 He called himself a dog. In fact, that's where 00:15:35.750 --> 00:15:37.990 the word cynic comes from. The Greek word kynikos 00:15:37.990 --> 00:15:40.289 means dog -like. I want to dig into that dog 00:15:40.289 --> 00:15:42.230 label in just a minute, but we absolutely have 00:15:42.230 --> 00:15:44.549 to talk about the beef with Plato. Because the 00:15:44.549 --> 00:15:46.750 stories of them trolling each other are legendary. 00:15:47.190 --> 00:15:49.230 They are. And there's one incident that I think 00:15:49.230 --> 00:15:51.389 is the funniest thing in the entire history of 00:15:51.389 --> 00:15:55.269 philosophy. The featherless biped incident. This 00:15:55.269 --> 00:15:57.649 is a classic. And to understand it, you have 00:15:57.649 --> 00:16:00.389 to picture the scene. Plato is running his academy. 00:16:00.779 --> 00:16:03.159 Right. Very prestigious, very serious place. 00:16:03.360 --> 00:16:06.460 Very serious. You've got wealthy students, geometric 00:16:06.460 --> 00:16:10.480 diagrams drawn in the sand, very highbrow, abstract 00:16:10.480 --> 00:16:13.580 discussions. And Plato, in one of his lectures, 00:16:13.820 --> 00:16:16.600 was trying to come up with a definitive scientific 00:16:16.600 --> 00:16:19.840 definition for human being. A simple definition 00:16:19.840 --> 00:16:22.679 for what makes us, us. Right. And after a lot 00:16:22.679 --> 00:16:24.460 of deliberation, he and his students settled 00:16:24.460 --> 00:16:27.600 on a definition. Man is a featherless biped. 00:16:27.779 --> 00:16:30.789 Okay. I mean, it makes sense technically. Humans 00:16:30.789 --> 00:16:33.230 walk on two legs, and unlike birds, we don't 00:16:33.230 --> 00:16:36.169 have feathers. It's logical. A bit dry, maybe, 00:16:36.289 --> 00:16:38.470 but it works on paper. It works on paper. Well, 00:16:38.509 --> 00:16:41.190 Diogenes heard about this new official definition. 00:16:41.529 --> 00:16:43.710 And he didn't write a paper refuting it. No. 00:16:43.970 --> 00:16:46.350 He didn't ask for a formal debate. What did he 00:16:46.350 --> 00:16:50.470 do? He found a rooster, a live chicken, and he 00:16:50.470 --> 00:16:53.330 plucked every single feather off its body. Oh, 00:16:53.389 --> 00:16:56.470 that's... That is graphic, that poor chicken. 00:16:56.690 --> 00:16:59.330 Then he marched into Plato's lecture hall with 00:16:59.330 --> 00:17:01.549 his poor, naked, shivering bird under his arm, 00:17:01.629 --> 00:17:03.450 threw it onto the floor in front of everyone 00:17:03.450 --> 00:17:06.690 and shouted, Behold, I've brought you a man! 00:17:07.210 --> 00:17:11.650 Or, here is Plato's man. Oh my god. Imagine this 00:17:11.650 --> 00:17:14.410 scene. You're in a serious philosophical lecture 00:17:14.410 --> 00:17:16.410 contemplating the nature of the soul and this 00:17:16.410 --> 00:17:18.630 crazy homeless guy runs in and throws a naked 00:17:18.630 --> 00:17:21.329 chicken at the podium. It completely dismantled 00:17:21.329 --> 00:17:24.660 Plato's abstract theory. with a brutal, physical, 00:17:24.839 --> 00:17:28.180 and hilarious reality. It humiliated Plato in 00:17:28.180 --> 00:17:30.160 front of his own students. So what did Plato 00:17:30.160 --> 00:17:32.980 do? He was forced to update his definition. He 00:17:32.980 --> 00:17:35.980 had to add, with broad, flat nails, to distinguish 00:17:35.980 --> 00:17:38.680 a human from a plucked chicken. With broad, flat 00:17:38.680 --> 00:17:40.440 nails. It just makes the whole thing even more 00:17:40.440 --> 00:17:42.359 ridiculous. But Diogenes' point wasn't really 00:17:42.359 --> 00:17:44.339 about the chicken, was it? It was about the futility 00:17:44.339 --> 00:17:46.539 of these abstract definitions. Right. He was 00:17:46.539 --> 00:17:50.000 a pragmatist. The ultimate pragmatist. Plato 00:17:50.000 --> 00:17:53.180 deals in the abstract, the ideal forms, the ideal 00:17:53.180 --> 00:17:56.720 chair, the ideal man. Diogenes deals in the messy 00:17:56.720 --> 00:17:59.700 physical reality right in front of him. There's 00:17:59.700 --> 00:18:01.480 another story where a philosopher was trying 00:18:01.480 --> 00:18:04.640 to argue that motion isn't real. Zeno's paradoxes, 00:18:04.640 --> 00:18:07.960 that kind of thing. Exactly. And Diogenes didn't 00:18:07.960 --> 00:18:10.099 debate him with logic. He just stood up and walked 00:18:10.099 --> 00:18:13.170 away. His actions were his arguments. He hated 00:18:13.170 --> 00:18:15.430 pretension. He hated over -intellectualizing 00:18:15.430 --> 00:18:17.970 things that should be simple. Absolutely. So 00:18:17.970 --> 00:18:20.250 let's get back to the dog thing. He embraced 00:18:20.250 --> 00:18:24.890 the title of cynic or kynikos. Why a dog? Most 00:18:24.890 --> 00:18:26.730 people, especially back then, would consider 00:18:26.730 --> 00:18:28.970 being called a dog a pretty terrible insult. 00:18:29.190 --> 00:18:31.809 But Diogenes reclaimed it. He turned it into 00:18:31.809 --> 00:18:34.240 a badge of honor. When someone asked him why 00:18:34.240 --> 00:18:36.880 he was called a dog, he gave a very simple, practical 00:18:36.880 --> 00:18:38.940 breakdown of his behavior. What did he say? He 00:18:38.940 --> 00:18:46.759 said, Simple as that. Reward the good, harass 00:18:46.759 --> 00:18:49.079 the cheap, and attack the bad. It's a pretty 00:18:49.079 --> 00:18:52.539 clear moral code. It is. But there's a deeper 00:18:52.539 --> 00:18:55.960 symbolism there, too. Think about how a dog lives. 00:18:56.180 --> 00:18:59.160 A dog lives entirely in the present moment. True. 00:18:59.259 --> 00:19:01.099 They eat when they're hungry, they sleep when 00:19:01.099 --> 00:19:03.720 they're tired, and they... Well, they do their 00:19:03.720 --> 00:19:05.500 business wherever they happen to be. They have 00:19:05.500 --> 00:19:08.119 no shame. They have no social anxiety. They're 00:19:08.119 --> 00:19:09.619 not worried about whether they're wearing the 00:19:09.619 --> 00:19:12.200 right toga or if their 401k is performing well. 00:19:12.359 --> 00:19:15.519 Exactly. Diogenes saw that as the ideal natural 00:19:15.519 --> 00:19:18.359 state, free from all the artificial worries that 00:19:18.359 --> 00:19:21.319 plague humanity. And this leads directly to his 00:19:21.319 --> 00:19:24.019 extreme asceticism. We mentioned the jar, but 00:19:24.019 --> 00:19:26.279 there's the story of the cup. This one really 00:19:26.279 --> 00:19:28.579 stuck with me because it shows just how high 00:19:28.579 --> 00:19:31.589 his standards for minimalism were. It wasn't 00:19:31.589 --> 00:19:33.650 enough to be poor. He had to be efficient. It 00:19:33.650 --> 00:19:35.970 really does show his commitment. So at this point 00:19:35.970 --> 00:19:38.910 in his life, he possessed almost nothing. A cloak 00:19:38.910 --> 00:19:41.630 to wear and sleep in, a staff for walking and 00:19:41.630 --> 00:19:44.250 self -defense, and a single wooden cup for drinking 00:19:44.250 --> 00:19:46.730 water. Which is already pretty minimal. Very. 00:19:47.069 --> 00:19:49.430 But one day, he's walking through the city and 00:19:49.430 --> 00:19:52.390 he saw a young boy at a public fountain. The 00:19:52.390 --> 00:19:54.509 boy didn't have a cup. He just cupped his hands 00:19:54.509 --> 00:19:56.589 together to drink the water. And most of us would 00:19:56.589 --> 00:19:58.470 think, oh, that poor kid, he can't even afford 00:19:58.470 --> 00:20:01.440 a cup. Diogenes had the opposite reaction. He 00:20:01.440 --> 00:20:06.140 thought, I am a fool. He realized this child 00:20:06.140 --> 00:20:08.859 had outsmarted him in simplicity. So what did 00:20:08.859 --> 00:20:11.960 he do? He immediately threw his own wooden cup 00:20:11.960 --> 00:20:14.759 away, saying something like, a child has beat 00:20:14.759 --> 00:20:17.660 me in plainness of living. He realized nature 00:20:17.660 --> 00:20:19.980 had already given him a perfectly good cup, his 00:20:19.980 --> 00:20:22.180 hands. Why was he carrying around this extra 00:20:22.180 --> 00:20:25.170 piece of wood? It was just... Baggage. He threw 00:20:25.170 --> 00:20:27.970 away his only dining utensil because he had hands. 00:20:28.130 --> 00:20:30.829 That is hardcore. It's like a modern minimalist 00:20:30.829 --> 00:20:32.849 throwing away their bed because the floor exists. 00:20:33.210 --> 00:20:35.569 He did the same thing with a bowl. He saw another 00:20:35.569 --> 00:20:38.049 boy who was eating lentils out of a hollowed 00:20:38.049 --> 00:20:40.609 out piece of stale bread. An edible bowl. Right. 00:20:40.750 --> 00:20:43.609 And Diogenes realized his own bowl was unnecessary 00:20:43.609 --> 00:20:46.210 and he smashed it. There's also the story about 00:20:46.210 --> 00:20:48.509 the mouse, which seems to be a real turning point 00:20:48.509 --> 00:20:51.450 for him. Yes. This is often cited as a moment 00:20:51.450 --> 00:20:54.099 of epiphany. He was observing a mouse running 00:20:54.099 --> 00:20:56.240 around in the pantry, in the street, wherever. 00:20:56.880 --> 00:20:58.960 He noticed the mouse wasn't looking for a soft 00:20:58.960 --> 00:21:01.859 bed. It wasn't afraid of the dark. It didn't 00:21:01.859 --> 00:21:04.579 crave luxury foods. It just adapted. It adapted 00:21:04.579 --> 00:21:07.279 to whatever the environment offered. And Diogenes 00:21:07.279 --> 00:21:10.220 took that as a profound lesson. If a mouse can 00:21:10.220 --> 00:21:12.660 be perfectly happy with a few crumbs in a dark 00:21:12.660 --> 00:21:15.880 corner, why is a human so incredibly demanding? 00:21:16.380 --> 00:21:18.140 It's interesting because the expert analysis 00:21:18.140 --> 00:21:20.500 here, your analysis in the notes, distinguishes 00:21:20.500 --> 00:21:24.440 between actual poverty and the feeling of poverty. 00:21:24.640 --> 00:21:27.180 Can you explain that? Because to me, sleeping 00:21:27.180 --> 00:21:29.400 in a jar sounds a lot like actual poverty. It 00:21:29.400 --> 00:21:31.500 is, of course. But this is a crucial distinction 00:21:31.500 --> 00:21:36.019 in cynic and later stoic philosophy. Actual poverty 00:21:36.019 --> 00:21:38.119 is just a lack of money or resources. It's an 00:21:38.119 --> 00:21:41.039 external condition. Okay. But the feeling of 00:21:41.039 --> 00:21:43.519 poverty, that gnawing dissatisfaction, the anxiety 00:21:43.519 --> 00:21:47.230 of not enough. That comes from wanting things 00:21:47.230 --> 00:21:49.390 you don't have. So a billionaire who is obsessed 00:21:49.390 --> 00:21:51.910 with becoming a trillionaire could feel poorer 00:21:51.910 --> 00:21:54.349 than a monk. Diogenes would say he is poorer. 00:21:54.750 --> 00:21:57.490 He believed that a wealthy tyrant who is constantly 00:21:57.490 --> 00:22:00.210 afraid of losing his power or who always wants 00:22:00.210 --> 00:22:03.029 more land, more gold, more glory, is actually 00:22:03.029 --> 00:22:05.190 the poorest man in the world. Because the tyrant 00:22:05.190 --> 00:22:09.170 is needy. Exactly. The tyrant needs armies. Walls, 00:22:09.170 --> 00:22:12.349 tasters for his food, constant flattery. He is 00:22:12.349 --> 00:22:15.829 a slave to his desires and his fears. Diogenes, 00:22:15.829 --> 00:22:19.549 on the other hand, needs nothing. Maybe little 00:22:19.549 --> 00:22:21.430 water from the fountain, maybe a crust of bread 00:22:21.430 --> 00:22:23.230 somebody gives him. The man who needs nothing 00:22:23.230 --> 00:22:25.730 is the equal of the gods. That's the core idea. 00:22:25.990 --> 00:22:28.029 That brings us to the behavior that got him in 00:22:28.029 --> 00:22:30.430 the most trouble. The shamelessness. And when 00:22:30.430 --> 00:22:32.349 we say shameless, we mean he did everything in 00:22:32.349 --> 00:22:33.950 public. He did everything in public. We're talking 00:22:33.950 --> 00:22:36.630 about eating, which in ancient Athens was actually 00:22:36.630 --> 00:22:38.789 considered rude to do in the marketplace, right? 00:22:38.910 --> 00:22:42.029 It was seen as low class. It was, yes. Like eating 00:22:42.029 --> 00:22:45.210 on a crowded subway today, but with more social 00:22:45.210 --> 00:22:47.579 stigma. Yeah. But he went much, much further 00:22:47.579 --> 00:22:50.119 than that. He slept there, obviously, and he 00:22:50.119 --> 00:22:52.099 performed other bodily functions. We're talking 00:22:52.099 --> 00:22:55.480 about urinating and self -pleasure. He would 00:22:55.480 --> 00:22:57.859 urinate on people who insulted him. Yeah. And 00:22:57.859 --> 00:23:00.099 he would masturbate in the marketplace in full 00:23:00.099 --> 00:23:02.319 view of everyone. Okay, I have to play the skeptic 00:23:02.319 --> 00:23:05.880 here. Why? Was he just trying to be gross? Was 00:23:05.880 --> 00:23:08.380 he just an exhibitionist? Because that sounds 00:23:08.380 --> 00:23:10.279 less like philosophy and more like, you know, 00:23:10.279 --> 00:23:13.509 a public indecency charge. It wasn't just to 00:23:13.509 --> 00:23:15.710 be gross, though I'm absolutely sure he enjoyed 00:23:15.710 --> 00:23:18.289 the shock value. Oh, I bet he did. It was a philosophical 00:23:18.289 --> 00:23:21.829 argument made through action. Diogenes argued 00:23:21.829 --> 00:23:24.430 that if an act is natural, it shouldn't be shameful 00:23:24.430 --> 00:23:27.269 to do it in public. We don't hide in a private 00:23:27.269 --> 00:23:29.710 room when we eat an apple. Hunger is natural. 00:23:29.990 --> 00:23:33.190 Right. Sexual desire is also natural. So why 00:23:33.190 --> 00:23:34.890 do we hide one act in shame and not the other? 00:23:35.259 --> 00:23:37.259 He was challenging the completely artificial 00:23:37.259 --> 00:23:40.279 line that society draws between public and private. 00:23:40.400 --> 00:23:41.759 He had a pretty funny quote about it, didn't 00:23:41.759 --> 00:23:44.259 he? He did. After being chastised for it by some 00:23:44.259 --> 00:23:46.480 horrified pedestrians, he apparently rubbed his 00:23:46.480 --> 00:23:51.539 stomach and said, God, that's so blunt and so 00:23:51.539 --> 00:23:54.759 brilliant. To him, sexual release was just another 00:23:54.759 --> 00:23:57.480 physical itch, like a mosquito bite or a hunger 00:23:57.480 --> 00:24:00.220 pang. If you could satisfy hunger by rubbing 00:24:00.220 --> 00:24:02.480 your stomach, of course you would. He saw no 00:24:02.480 --> 00:24:05.700 moral difference. He refused to assign any magic 00:24:05.700 --> 00:24:08.799 or taboo to biology. There's the spitting incident. 00:24:08.960 --> 00:24:11.200 This one makes me cringe just reading about it, 00:24:11.240 --> 00:24:14.019 but it's so effective. This is peak Diogenes. 00:24:14.119 --> 00:24:17.000 He was invited into a wealthy man's house. This 00:24:17.000 --> 00:24:19.500 man was very proud of his home. And the house 00:24:19.500 --> 00:24:23.339 was immaculate expensive rugs, beautiful art, 00:24:23.440 --> 00:24:25.960 polished marble everywhere. So the man is showing 00:24:25.960 --> 00:24:28.839 off. Absolutely. And the host, maybe trying to 00:24:28.839 --> 00:24:31.819 be a bit condescending, says to Diogenes, be 00:24:31.819 --> 00:24:33.920 careful not to spit anywhere. The house is very 00:24:33.920 --> 00:24:36.700 clean. Which on the surface is a reasonable request. 00:24:36.940 --> 00:24:40.000 A very reasonable request. But to Diogenes, it 00:24:40.000 --> 00:24:42.839 was a challenge, a display of vanity. So he takes 00:24:42.839 --> 00:24:45.099 a moment, clears his throat, and spits right 00:24:45.099 --> 00:24:48.029 in the host's face. Oh, my God. That is assault. 00:24:48.269 --> 00:24:50.829 It is. And when the host starts shouting at him, 00:24:50.910 --> 00:24:53.230 Diogenes calmly replied that with everything 00:24:53.230 --> 00:24:55.109 else in the house being so perfect and clean 00:24:55.109 --> 00:24:57.829 and expensive, his face was the only dirty or 00:24:57.829 --> 00:25:00.269 worthless place he could find to spit. That is 00:25:00.269 --> 00:25:02.650 certainly one way to make a point about vanity. 00:25:02.950 --> 00:25:05.170 But it makes you wonder, was he a sociopath? 00:25:05.950 --> 00:25:08.589 Or just so committed to the bit that he didn't 00:25:08.589 --> 00:25:10.910 care about other people's feelings? I think he 00:25:10.910 --> 00:25:14.880 viewed politeness and feelings as... part of 00:25:14.880 --> 00:25:17.279 the currency that he was trying to deface he 00:25:17.279 --> 00:25:20.640 felt that by prioritizing the cleanliness of 00:25:20.640 --> 00:25:23.700 objects over the i don't know the dignity of 00:25:23.700 --> 00:25:26.119 reality the rift man had his values completely 00:25:26.119 --> 00:25:28.779 backward he wanted to shock the man out of his 00:25:28.779 --> 00:25:30.920 vanity he was a slap in the face literal and 00:25:30.920 --> 00:25:33.240 metaphorical yes let's talk about the lantern 00:25:33.240 --> 00:25:34.920 this is probably the second most famous image 00:25:34.920 --> 00:25:37.140 of him right after the jar He wanders around 00:25:37.140 --> 00:25:39.640 Athens in broad daylight holding a lit lamp. 00:25:39.779 --> 00:25:41.880 Yes, in the middle of a sunny afternoon, holding 00:25:41.880 --> 00:25:43.960 a burning lamp up to people's faces in the crowded 00:25:43.960 --> 00:25:46.779 marketplace. And when people would ask him, Diogenes, 00:25:46.779 --> 00:25:49.000 what are you doing? He'd say, I am looking for 00:25:49.000 --> 00:25:51.740 a man. And usually people translate that as, 00:25:51.799 --> 00:25:53.720 I'm looking for an honest man. That's the version 00:25:53.720 --> 00:25:56.039 I always hear. That's a later, softer translation 00:25:56.039 --> 00:25:58.779 that kind of misses the bite. The original Greek 00:25:58.779 --> 00:26:01.079 suggests he said he was just looking for a human, 00:26:01.200 --> 00:26:05.509 an anthropos, a man. Or more specifically, a 00:26:05.509 --> 00:26:08.910 wise man, a sophos. So the implication was even 00:26:08.910 --> 00:26:10.910 more insulting than just looking for an honest 00:26:10.910 --> 00:26:13.349 guy. Much more. He was saying the people around 00:26:13.349 --> 00:26:16.390 him, all of them. Weren't even real humans. Exactly. 00:26:16.450 --> 00:26:18.190 He was implying that all the people crowding 00:26:18.190 --> 00:26:20.809 the marketplace, buying, selling, gossiping, 00:26:20.809 --> 00:26:23.250 politicking, they weren't real humans. They were 00:26:23.250 --> 00:26:26.230 just sheep following customs. They were sleepwalking 00:26:26.230 --> 00:26:28.769 through life, driven by appetites and conventions. 00:26:29.269 --> 00:26:31.910 He couldn't find a single person who was living 00:26:31.910 --> 00:26:35.109 as a true, rational, self -aware human being. 00:26:35.230 --> 00:26:37.509 He was saying, I see a lot of bodies. I see a 00:26:37.509 --> 00:26:40.059 lot of togas, but I don't see any people. That's 00:26:40.059 --> 00:26:42.599 the perfect way to put it. This leads us to his 00:26:42.599 --> 00:26:45.240 view on where he fit in. Because if he didn't 00:26:45.240 --> 00:26:47.200 respect the men of Athens, he certainly didn't 00:26:47.200 --> 00:26:49.640 respect the state of Athens. He has this famous 00:26:49.640 --> 00:26:51.500 line when he's asked where he was from. Right. 00:26:51.559 --> 00:26:53.460 Someone asked him, what is your country? And 00:26:53.460 --> 00:26:56.900 he replied, I'm a cosmopolities. A cosmopolitan. 00:26:57.400 --> 00:26:59.640 It's the first recorded use of that word. He 00:26:59.640 --> 00:27:01.940 likely invented it. He did. But we have to be 00:27:01.940 --> 00:27:03.900 really careful not to project our modern meaning 00:27:03.900 --> 00:27:07.099 onto it. Right. Today, a cosmopolitan is someone 00:27:07.099 --> 00:27:10.240 who, you know, drinks fancy cocktails, travels 00:27:10.240 --> 00:27:13.619 to Paris and Tokyo, reads The New Yorker. Or, 00:27:13.759 --> 00:27:15.940 in a more political sense, someone who believes 00:27:15.940 --> 00:27:18.839 in a global community, like the UN Universal 00:27:18.839 --> 00:27:21.220 Brotherhood. We are the world, that sort of thing. 00:27:21.500 --> 00:27:24.039 Diogenes didn't necessarily mean we are all brothers 00:27:24.039 --> 00:27:27.829 in that kind of kumbaya sense. We have to remember 00:27:27.829 --> 00:27:31.910 the context. In 400 BC, the city of the polis 00:27:31.910 --> 00:27:35.150 was everything. It was your religion, your military, 00:27:35.410 --> 00:27:38.210 your family, your safety net. To say, I am not 00:27:38.210 --> 00:27:41.130 an Athenian, was practically treasonous. It was 00:27:41.130 --> 00:27:43.170 like saying, I don't have a country. He was saying 00:27:43.170 --> 00:27:45.029 more than that. He meant that the city -state 00:27:45.029 --> 00:27:47.769 itself is a fake construct, an artificial label. 00:27:48.029 --> 00:27:51.150 Being Athenian or Corinthian or Spartan is meaningless. 00:27:51.329 --> 00:27:54.150 He belongs to the cosmos, the universe. He lives 00:27:54.150 --> 00:27:56.250 by the laws of nature, not the arbitrary laws 00:27:56.250 --> 00:27:58.250 of some city council. So it was a total rejection 00:27:58.250 --> 00:28:00.670 of politics. A total rejection of the state. 00:28:01.170 --> 00:28:04.869 He viewed social norms, or nomos, as being in 00:28:04.869 --> 00:28:08.599 direct opposition to nature. And we know he wrote 00:28:08.599 --> 00:28:11.220 a book about this called The Republic or Politia. 00:28:11.519 --> 00:28:14.279 Which is lost now, sadly. It's lost, but we have 00:28:14.279 --> 00:28:16.759 reports from other writers about what was in 00:28:16.759 --> 00:28:20.240 it. Yeah. And it was incredibly radical. How 00:28:20.240 --> 00:28:22.460 radical? I mean, Plato also wrote a republic 00:28:22.460 --> 00:28:24.259 and that was pretty strict with the philosopher 00:28:24.259 --> 00:28:26.980 kings and all that. Diogenes' republic was the 00:28:26.980 --> 00:28:29.980 anti -Plato. According to the sources, it was 00:28:29.980 --> 00:28:32.400 a utopian vision of a world with no government. 00:28:33.209 --> 00:28:35.329 He advocated for the end of the nuclear family, 00:28:35.450 --> 00:28:37.990 a community of wives and children. He argued 00:28:37.990 --> 00:28:39.890 that money should be abolished. Okay, that's 00:28:39.890 --> 00:28:41.630 pretty far out there. But then he went into the 00:28:41.630 --> 00:28:44.029 really dark stuff. He reportedly argued that 00:28:44.029 --> 00:28:46.269 things like cannibalism and even incest weren't 00:28:46.269 --> 00:28:49.170 evil in a natural sense. Whoa, wait, cannibalism? 00:28:49.329 --> 00:28:52.029 His logic, and it's a cold, hard, and disturbing 00:28:52.029 --> 00:28:54.910 logic, was that in nature, animals eat other 00:28:54.910 --> 00:28:57.670 animals. Matter is just matter. If you strip 00:28:57.670 --> 00:29:00.009 away the custom... the nomos, that says eating 00:29:00.009 --> 00:29:02.390 people is wrong. Nature itself doesn't have a 00:29:02.390 --> 00:29:04.349 specific rule against it. That is shocking even 00:29:04.349 --> 00:29:06.849 today. I mean, that's beyond the pale. It was 00:29:06.849 --> 00:29:09.750 meant to be shocking. He was pushing the logic 00:29:09.750 --> 00:29:12.849 of nature over custom to its absolute breaking 00:29:12.849 --> 00:29:15.289 point. He was forcing people to admit that much 00:29:15.289 --> 00:29:17.809 of their morality was just habit, not a law of 00:29:17.809 --> 00:29:19.910 physics. If you peel the onion of custom all 00:29:19.910 --> 00:29:22.410 the way down, you end up in some very dark, uncomfortable 00:29:22.410 --> 00:29:26.390 places. Wow. Okay, so Diogenes is living this 00:29:26.390 --> 00:29:29.569 wild, provocative life in Athens, but then his 00:29:29.569 --> 00:29:32.150 story takes a dramatic, almost cinematic turn. 00:29:32.289 --> 00:29:35.190 He leaves Athens, but not by choice. He gets 00:29:35.190 --> 00:29:37.569 captured. This is like an action movie subplot 00:29:37.569 --> 00:29:40.269 just dropped into a philosophy lecture. Diogenes 00:29:40.269 --> 00:29:42.789 was traveling to the island of Aegina by ship. 00:29:43.099 --> 00:29:45.019 And travel in the ancient world was dangerous. 00:29:45.339 --> 00:29:48.500 Very. The agency was swarming with pirates. And 00:29:48.500 --> 00:29:50.299 these weren't, you know, Jack Sparrow type pirates 00:29:50.299 --> 00:29:52.220 with parrots. These were slavers. Brutal stuff. 00:29:52.559 --> 00:29:54.700 Absolutely. His ship was attacked and overrun. 00:29:54.920 --> 00:29:57.420 Diogenes was captured, put in chains, and taken 00:29:57.420 --> 00:29:59.940 to Crete to be sold in a slave market. The irony 00:29:59.940 --> 00:30:02.559 is suffocating. The man who mocked slavery, the 00:30:02.559 --> 00:30:05.559 man who said, I am the only free man, is now 00:30:05.559 --> 00:30:08.160 literally standing on an auction block. But listen 00:30:08.160 --> 00:30:11.220 to how he handles it. Most people would be weeping. 00:30:11.660 --> 00:30:15.180 begging for mercy, trying to look useful. The 00:30:15.180 --> 00:30:17.720 auctioneer asks him the standard question. What 00:30:17.720 --> 00:30:20.019 are you skilled at? What can you do? Expecting 00:30:20.019 --> 00:30:22.519 him to say farming or cooking or accounting. 00:30:23.000 --> 00:30:26.000 And Diogenes, in chains, looks the auctioneer 00:30:26.000 --> 00:30:28.559 right in the eye and replies, I know how to govern 00:30:28.559 --> 00:30:31.859 men. He says his skill is being a boss while 00:30:31.859 --> 00:30:34.680 he's for sale. Yes. And then he points into the 00:30:34.680 --> 00:30:37.319 crowd. He sees a wealthy, well -dressed Corinthian 00:30:37.319 --> 00:30:40.500 man named Xaniades. And he shouts to the auctioneer, 00:30:40.539 --> 00:30:43.279 Summon to that man. He needs a master. That is 00:30:43.279 --> 00:30:45.660 the ultimate sales pitch. Buy me because you 00:30:45.660 --> 00:30:47.619 are incompetent and need someone to run your 00:30:47.619 --> 00:30:50.920 life. It's insane. And it worked. Xaniades was 00:30:50.920 --> 00:30:53.599 so intrigued, so blown away by the sheer audacity 00:30:53.599 --> 00:30:55.839 of this dirty old man, that he actually bought 00:30:55.839 --> 00:30:58.160 him. You have to admire Xaniades, too. He saw 00:30:58.160 --> 00:31:00.180 something there. He did. He took him back to 00:31:00.180 --> 00:31:02.500 Corinth. And instead of treating him like a field 00:31:02.500 --> 00:31:05.440 hand or a servant, he put Diogenes in charge 00:31:05.440 --> 00:31:07.859 of his entire household and, most importantly, 00:31:08.019 --> 00:31:10.119 his children. So the homeless philosopher becomes 00:31:10.119 --> 00:31:13.900 a live -in private tutor. Yes. And by all accounts, 00:31:14.039 --> 00:31:16.480 he was an excellent teacher. But he taught them 00:31:16.480 --> 00:31:19.720 the Cynic way. He taught Cynides' sons how to 00:31:19.720 --> 00:31:22.259 ride horses, to shoot arrows, and to memorize 00:31:22.259 --> 00:31:25.599 long passages of poetry. But he also made them 00:31:25.599 --> 00:31:28.220 walk barefoot. He made them wear a single simple 00:31:28.220 --> 00:31:31.390 cloak. He made them drink only water and cut 00:31:31.390 --> 00:31:34.029 their own hair short. He turned these rich Corinthian 00:31:34.029 --> 00:31:37.029 kids into little philosophical monks. He did. 00:31:37.589 --> 00:31:40.410 And Xenides apparently loved it. He told people 00:31:40.410 --> 00:31:42.490 that having Diogenes in the house was like having 00:31:42.490 --> 00:31:46.450 a good spirit, a deity, living with them. Diogenes 00:31:46.450 --> 00:31:48.609 managed the household finances and affairs perfectly. 00:31:49.099 --> 00:31:51.640 Which just goes to show Diogenes wasn't incompetent 00:31:51.640 --> 00:31:53.859 or lazy. He was perfectly capable of running 00:31:53.859 --> 00:31:56.200 a complex estate. He just usually chose not to. 00:31:56.279 --> 00:31:58.440 Exactly. He refused to be freed too, right? He 00:31:58.440 --> 00:32:00.680 did. When some of his old friends from Athens 00:32:00.680 --> 00:32:02.660 found him and offered to buy his freedom from 00:32:02.660 --> 00:32:08.420 Xenides, he called them foolish. He said, So 00:32:08.420 --> 00:32:13.900 he saw himself as the lion of the house. He viewed 00:32:13.900 --> 00:32:16.900 his position as the true master of the house, 00:32:17.059 --> 00:32:20.140 regardless of his legal status. He was the one 00:32:20.140 --> 00:32:23.079 with the wisdom and virtue. Zinniades was just 00:32:23.079 --> 00:32:25.480 the guy with the wallet. This brings us to Corinth, 00:32:25.640 --> 00:32:28.500 where Diogenes is living later in his life. And 00:32:28.500 --> 00:32:30.779 this is the setting for the most famous, most 00:32:30.779 --> 00:32:34.160 iconic anecdote in his entire biography, the 00:32:34.160 --> 00:32:36.160 meeting with the most powerful man on earth at 00:32:36.160 --> 00:32:40.160 the time, Alexander the Great. This is the heavyweight 00:32:40.160 --> 00:32:42.720 championship of the ancient world. It's the collision 00:32:42.720 --> 00:32:45.039 of two completely opposite worlds. You have to 00:32:45.039 --> 00:32:48.660 visualize it. It's around 336 BC. Alexander has 00:32:48.660 --> 00:32:51.440 just pacified Greece. He is young, maybe 20 years 00:32:51.440 --> 00:32:54.099 old. He's on top of the world. He's handsome, 00:32:54.200 --> 00:32:55.900 probably wearing golden armor, surrounded by 00:32:55.900 --> 00:32:59.220 bodyguards and fawning sycophants. He is effectively 00:32:59.220 --> 00:33:01.420 the king of the world. And everyone wants a piece 00:33:01.420 --> 00:33:03.599 of him. All the other philosophers, the politicians, 00:33:03.940 --> 00:33:06.160 the generals, they're all flocking to Corinth 00:33:06.160 --> 00:33:08.039 to congratulate him and get on his good side. 00:33:08.380 --> 00:33:11.000 Everyone except Diogenes. He doesn't go to the 00:33:11.000 --> 00:33:13.519 court. He stays in the cranium, which was a cypress 00:33:13.519 --> 00:33:15.480 grove outside the city. He's just lying in the 00:33:15.480 --> 00:33:17.589 sun, maybe scratching himself. He couldn't care 00:33:17.589 --> 00:33:20.009 less that the king is in town. So Alexander, 00:33:20.470 --> 00:33:23.250 being curious and having heard the wild stories 00:33:23.250 --> 00:33:25.990 about this philosopher, goes to find him. The 00:33:25.990 --> 00:33:28.329 king goes to the beggar. Imagine the tension. 00:33:28.609 --> 00:33:31.650 The entire royal entourage walks up to this old 00:33:31.650 --> 00:33:34.809 man and rags. The shadow of the king falls over 00:33:34.809 --> 00:33:37.809 Biogenes. Alexander stands over him and, you 00:33:37.809 --> 00:33:40.190 know, trying to be magnanimous, he makes an offer. 00:33:40.250 --> 00:33:42.210 He asks, is there anything you want? Ask me for 00:33:42.210 --> 00:33:45.519 anything. Anything at all. think about what that 00:33:45.519 --> 00:33:47.480 offer means he could have asked for a palace 00:33:47.480 --> 00:33:49.880 he could have asked for a citizenship back he 00:33:49.880 --> 00:33:51.460 could have asked for a mountain of gold he could 00:33:51.460 --> 00:33:54.079 have asked for his enemies to be executed anything 00:33:54.079 --> 00:33:57.500 and diogenes doesn't even sit up he doesn't stand 00:33:57.500 --> 00:33:59.759 he just squints up at the most powerful man in 00:33:59.759 --> 00:34:02.420 the world and waves his hand dismissively and 00:34:02.420 --> 00:34:05.349 he says yes Stand a little out of my sun. Stand 00:34:05.349 --> 00:34:07.430 a little out of my sun. That is the ultimate 00:34:07.430 --> 00:34:10.369 power move. It is absolutely devastating. In 00:34:10.369 --> 00:34:12.530 one sentence, he reduced Alexander the Great 00:34:12.530 --> 00:34:14.690 to nothing more than an opaque object blocking 00:34:14.690 --> 00:34:17.349 the light. He showed that Alexander, with all 00:34:17.349 --> 00:34:19.409 his armies and all his wealth, couldn't give 00:34:19.409 --> 00:34:22.769 Diogenes anything of value. The only thing Diogenes 00:34:22.769 --> 00:34:25.079 wanted at that moment was sunlight. which is 00:34:25.079 --> 00:34:27.360 free and natural, and Alexander was ruining it. 00:34:27.599 --> 00:34:29.559 Alexander's soldiers must have lost their minds. 00:34:29.599 --> 00:34:31.400 They probably wanted to cut him down right there 00:34:31.400 --> 00:34:33.360 for the disrespect. Oh, yeah, they started laughing 00:34:33.360 --> 00:34:36.320 and mocking the old man. Look at this fool disrespecting 00:34:36.320 --> 00:34:41.739 the king. But Alexander, he was smart. He silenced 00:34:41.739 --> 00:34:44.699 them. He understood what had just happened. As 00:34:44.699 --> 00:34:47.420 they were walking away, he reportedly said to 00:34:47.420 --> 00:34:50.400 his men, but truly, if I were not Alexander, 00:34:50.699 --> 00:34:53.800 I would be Diogenes. That is a profound admission. 00:34:54.039 --> 00:34:56.139 It gives me chills every time I hear it. What 00:34:56.139 --> 00:34:58.659 did he mean by that? It suggests that Alexander 00:34:58.659 --> 00:35:01.579 recognized there are really only two ways to 00:35:01.579 --> 00:35:04.480 be truly free and powerful in this world. One 00:35:04.480 --> 00:35:07.320 is to conquer the entire world so that no one 00:35:07.320 --> 00:35:09.739 can command you. That's Alexander's way. And 00:35:09.739 --> 00:35:12.079 the other? The other is to want nothing from 00:35:12.079 --> 00:35:14.820 the world so that no one can command you. That's 00:35:14.820 --> 00:35:16.980 Diogenes' way. They were two sides of the same 00:35:16.980 --> 00:35:20.079 coin of autarky total self -sufficiency. Alexander 00:35:20.079 --> 00:35:23.190 was a slave to his ambition. Diogenes was free 00:35:23.190 --> 00:35:25.929 because he had none. Wow. The conqueror of the 00:35:25.929 --> 00:35:28.110 world was actually jealous of the beggar. In 00:35:28.110 --> 00:35:32.650 a way, yes. He respected that freedom. So Diogenes 00:35:32.650 --> 00:35:34.409 eventually reaches the end of his life in Corinth. 00:35:34.690 --> 00:35:37.630 And true to form, his death is surrounded by 00:35:37.630 --> 00:35:40.710 a cloud of bizarre stories and legends. When 00:35:40.710 --> 00:35:43.429 did he die? Scholars think it was around 323 00:35:43.429 --> 00:35:46.429 or 324 BC. He would have been quite old, maybe 00:35:46.429 --> 00:35:48.739 around 90. And the legend, of course, says he 00:35:48.739 --> 00:35:51.039 died on the exact same day as Alexander the Great, 00:35:51.139 --> 00:35:53.619 who died in Babylon. That is almost certainly 00:35:53.619 --> 00:35:56.539 a myth, a poetic touch made up later to link 00:35:56.539 --> 00:35:59.099 them together forever. But it does signify the 00:35:59.099 --> 00:36:01.780 end of an era. The theories on how he died are 00:36:01.780 --> 00:36:05.179 just wild. They're all over the place. One popular 00:36:05.179 --> 00:36:08.659 theory is that he ate a raw octopus. Why on earth 00:36:08.659 --> 00:36:11.400 would he eat a raw octopus? To prove that cooking 00:36:11.400 --> 00:36:14.039 was an unnecessary and artificial custom, he 00:36:14.039 --> 00:36:16.199 wanted to eat like an animal. But the octopus 00:36:16.199 --> 00:36:18.929 was raw. and either choked on it or died of severe 00:36:18.929 --> 00:36:21.670 food poisoning or cholera. Death by raw octopus, 00:36:21.969 --> 00:36:24.889 that's very on -brand for him. It is. Another 00:36:24.889 --> 00:36:26.690 theory says he was trying to feed an octopus 00:36:26.690 --> 00:36:29.469 to some dogs, got bitten by one of the dogs in 00:36:29.469 --> 00:36:32.050 the scuffle, and the wound got infected, and 00:36:32.050 --> 00:36:34.030 he died of gangrene. But there's a weirder one, 00:36:34.230 --> 00:36:37.789 the suicide theory. Yes, the theory that he voluntarily 00:36:37.789 --> 00:36:40.809 held his breath until he died. Is that even medically 00:36:40.809 --> 00:36:42.929 possible? I feel like if you hold your breath, 00:36:42.989 --> 00:36:45.349 you just pass out. and then your body just starts 00:36:45.349 --> 00:36:48.289 breathing again? You are 100 % correct. Your 00:36:48.289 --> 00:36:50.690 autonomic nervous system forces you to breathe. 00:36:51.150 --> 00:36:53.909 You cannot kill yourself simply by holding your 00:36:53.909 --> 00:36:56.809 breath. So it's a myth? It's a myth, but as a 00:36:56.809 --> 00:37:00.170 philosophical legend, it fits perfectly. It implies 00:37:00.170 --> 00:37:03.050 he had such total superhuman control over his 00:37:03.050 --> 00:37:06.110 body and its desires that he could simply choose 00:37:06.110 --> 00:37:08.050 to leave life when he was done with it, like 00:37:08.050 --> 00:37:10.059 turning off a light switch. And then there's 00:37:10.059 --> 00:37:12.519 the most likely and most boring cause of death. 00:37:12.599 --> 00:37:15.300 Old age. He was 90 years old, living outside, 00:37:15.460 --> 00:37:18.239 sleeping in the dirt. It was probably just time. 00:37:18.440 --> 00:37:20.480 But the show wasn't over. He had instructions 00:37:20.480 --> 00:37:23.599 for his burial. Or rather, his non -burial. He 00:37:23.599 --> 00:37:25.280 told his friends to just throw his body over 00:37:25.280 --> 00:37:27.980 the city walls for the wild beasts to eat. Just 00:37:27.980 --> 00:37:30.579 garbage disposal. Recycle me back into nature. 00:37:30.760 --> 00:37:33.860 Yes. And his friends were horrified. They asked 00:37:33.860 --> 00:37:36.380 him, you don't mind being eaten by birds and 00:37:36.380 --> 00:37:39.869 wolves? And Diogenes, even on his deathbed, made 00:37:39.869 --> 00:37:43.610 one last joke. Was it? He said, not at all. Just 00:37:43.610 --> 00:37:45.670 make sure you give me a stick to chase him away. 00:37:45.889 --> 00:37:48.030 I love that. And his friends were like, Diogenes, 00:37:48.030 --> 00:37:50.070 you'll be dead. You can't use a stick. You won't 00:37:50.070 --> 00:37:53.190 be aware. And he delivers his final lesson. If 00:37:53.190 --> 00:37:55.590 I am unaware, then why should I care what happens 00:37:55.590 --> 00:37:57.690 to the body? Even in death, he was teaching. 00:37:57.949 --> 00:37:59.969 He was showing that the body is just a vessel. 00:38:00.550 --> 00:38:02.889 Once the person is gone, the meat doesn't matter. 00:38:03.130 --> 00:38:06.250 Our funeral customs are for the living, not the 00:38:06.250 --> 00:38:09.309 dead. In the end, the Corinthians didn't listen 00:38:09.309 --> 00:38:12.030 to him. They were too fond of him. They buried 00:38:12.030 --> 00:38:14.730 him with honor by the city gate. They even erected 00:38:14.730 --> 00:38:17.150 a pillar with a statue of a dog and parian marble 00:38:17.150 --> 00:38:20.090 on top of it. Which is deeply ironic, considering 00:38:20.090 --> 00:38:23.489 how much he hated monuments and statues. But 00:38:23.489 --> 00:38:26.170 let's talk about his legacy. Because Diogenes 00:38:26.170 --> 00:38:28.349 didn't just die and vanish. His ideas rippled 00:38:28.349 --> 00:38:30.530 out and actually formed the basis for a much 00:38:30.530 --> 00:38:33.050 more famous and much more mainstream philosophy. 00:38:33.489 --> 00:38:36.170 Hugely. His most famous student was a man named 00:38:36.170 --> 00:38:39.269 Crates of Thebes. And Crates taught a man named 00:38:39.269 --> 00:38:42.110 Zeno of Sidium. And Zeno is the founder of Stoicism. 00:38:42.730 --> 00:38:45.829 So the entire school of Stoicism, the philosophy 00:38:45.829 --> 00:38:48.690 of people like Seneca, Epictetus, the Roman emperor 00:38:48.690 --> 00:38:51.869 Marcus Aurelius, all of that traces its DNA directly 00:38:51.869 --> 00:38:54.570 back to Diogenes barking at people in his jar. 00:38:54.769 --> 00:38:57.730 But Stoicism is so different. It's so... polite. 00:38:57.809 --> 00:39:00.690 It's about duty and self -control within society. 00:39:01.269 --> 00:39:03.989 Stoicism is like the polite buttoned up version 00:39:03.989 --> 00:39:06.250 of cynicism. It's cynicism in a suit and tie. 00:39:06.769 --> 00:39:09.570 Stoicism took the core ideas that virtue is the 00:39:09.570 --> 00:39:11.309 only good. You should live according to nature. 00:39:11.469 --> 00:39:14.050 You should ignore wealth and status. But they 00:39:14.050 --> 00:39:16.909 smoothed out all the rough antisocial edges. 00:39:17.110 --> 00:39:18.590 They decided you could live in a nice house, 00:39:18.769 --> 00:39:21.090 hold a job and wear clean clothes and still be 00:39:21.090 --> 00:39:22.869 virtuous on the inside. Exactly. You didn't have 00:39:22.869 --> 00:39:24.829 to pee in the street to be free. We also have 00:39:24.829 --> 00:39:26.630 to mention a modern medical term that bears his 00:39:26.630 --> 00:39:30.190 name, Diogenes Syndrome. Yes, this is a real 00:39:30.190 --> 00:39:32.829 clinical term. It's used to describe a disorder, 00:39:33.030 --> 00:39:35.849 usually in elderly people, characterized by extreme 00:39:35.849 --> 00:39:38.550 self -neglect, domestic squalor, and compulsive 00:39:38.550 --> 00:39:40.489 hoarding. But based on everything we've just 00:39:40.489 --> 00:39:43.469 discussed, that seems incredibly unfair to Diogenes. 00:39:43.630 --> 00:39:45.849 It's a complete misnomer, a total misunderstanding 00:39:45.849 --> 00:39:49.000 of the man. Diogenes wasn't a hoarder. He was 00:39:49.000 --> 00:39:52.360 a radical minimalist. He threw things away. Hoarders 00:39:52.360 --> 00:39:54.679 surround themselves with junk. Diogenes surrounded 00:39:54.679 --> 00:39:57.159 himself with nothing. And Diogenes syndrome is 00:39:57.159 --> 00:39:59.880 characterized by social withdrawal people hiding 00:39:59.880 --> 00:40:02.289 in their homes. Right. And Diogenes was out in 00:40:02.289 --> 00:40:05.269 the Agora every single day engaging with people, 00:40:05.409 --> 00:40:08.110 arguing with them, shouting at them. He was hyper 00:40:08.110 --> 00:40:10.969 -social. So the medical community kind of got 00:40:10.969 --> 00:40:12.610 that one wrong. They focused on the filth but 00:40:12.610 --> 00:40:14.909 completely missed the philosophy. He's also iconic 00:40:14.909 --> 00:40:17.150 in art. You see him in Raphael's famous painting, 00:40:17.329 --> 00:40:19.710 The School of Athens. He's hard to miss. You 00:40:19.710 --> 00:40:21.610 have all these dignified philosophers, Plato, 00:40:22.010 --> 00:40:25.010 Aristotle standing in groups, arguing, holding 00:40:25.010 --> 00:40:28.070 books. And then there is Diogenes sprawling on 00:40:28.070 --> 00:40:30.869 the steps in his blue rags, just basking. totally 00:40:30.869 --> 00:40:34.099 alone, ignoring everyone. Even in the painting, 00:40:34.260 --> 00:40:36.639 he's an obstacle tripping up the passersby. So 00:40:36.639 --> 00:40:39.000 we've unpacked the man, the myth, and the jar. 00:40:39.219 --> 00:40:41.219 It's been a wild ride. But what does this all 00:40:41.219 --> 00:40:44.239 mean? Why does the guy who died over 2 ,300 years 00:40:44.239 --> 00:40:47.440 ago still matter to us? I think Diogenes matters 00:40:47.440 --> 00:40:50.079 because he is the ultimate mirror. We live in 00:40:50.079 --> 00:40:52.760 a society that is incredibly complex. We are 00:40:52.760 --> 00:40:55.699 obsessed with brands, with likes on social media, 00:40:55.900 --> 00:40:59.139 with job titles, property values, with keeping 00:40:59.139 --> 00:41:01.300 up with the Joneses. We're constantly stressed 00:41:01.300 --> 00:41:04.150 about things that... in the grand scheme of nature, 00:41:04.230 --> 00:41:07.389 don't even exist. Exactly. He forces us to ask, 00:41:07.510 --> 00:41:11.329 is this real or is this just painted currency? 00:41:12.110 --> 00:41:14.130 You don't have to move into a jar to learn from 00:41:14.130 --> 00:41:16.389 Diogenes. You don't have to, you know, do what 00:41:16.389 --> 00:41:18.329 he did in the marketplace. Please don't. Please 00:41:18.329 --> 00:41:20.289 don't. But you just have to look at your own 00:41:20.289 --> 00:41:22.929 life and ask, how much of my anxiety comes from 00:41:22.929 --> 00:41:25.429 trying to impress people I don't like or from 00:41:25.429 --> 00:41:27.130 following rules that don't actually make sense? 00:41:27.550 --> 00:41:30.269 He challenges us to be brave enough to be ourselves, 00:41:30.630 --> 00:41:32.769 even if it means looking a little crazy to everybody 00:41:32.769 --> 00:41:35.590 else. That is the takeaway for me. We are all 00:41:35.590 --> 00:41:37.610 playing a game. We are all acting out a part. 00:41:38.130 --> 00:41:40.570 Diogenes was the only one brave enough to stand 00:41:40.570 --> 00:41:43.389 up, flip the board over, and walk away. Before 00:41:43.389 --> 00:41:45.670 we go, here is a final provocative thought for 00:41:45.670 --> 00:41:49.210 you to chew on. Diogenes claimed his life's work 00:41:49.210 --> 00:41:52.889 was revaluing the currency. He believed that 00:41:52.889 --> 00:41:55.550 our shame, the shame of being poor or naked or 00:41:55.550 --> 00:41:58.699 different, was artificial a fake coin so the 00:41:58.699 --> 00:42:01.139 question is if you had to look at your own life 00:42:01.139 --> 00:42:03.860 right now your possessions your social obligations 00:42:03.860 --> 00:42:05.599 the things that keep you up at night stressing 00:42:05.599 --> 00:42:08.699 which of those are fake currency that diogenes 00:42:08.699 --> 00:42:10.500 would tell you to throw away and if you threw 00:42:10.500 --> 00:42:14.260 them away would you be poor or would you actually 00:42:14.260 --> 00:42:16.639 be free thanks for diving deep with us see you 00:42:16.639 --> 00:42:16.880 next time