THINKER'S ALMANAC - July 3

Subject:  Cynicism - Diogenes

Event:  Dog Days of Summer

The cat will mew, and dog will have his day. -William Shakespeare

Today is the first day of what is known as the Dog Days of Summer.  The association of summer with “man’s best friend” comes to our language via ancient astronomy.  During the period from July 3 through August 11, the Dog Star, Sirius, rises in conjunction with the Sun.  Sirius is the brightest star in the night sky and is part of the constellation Canis Major, Latin for Greater Dog.  

Some ancient Romans believed that the sultry heat of the Dog Days was explained by the combined heat of Sirius and the sun; however, in the days before the telescope, this belief was more prominent among the superstitious than serious students of the stars (1).

The Dog Days are an apt time to consider an ancient Greek school of philosophy that got its name from its association with dog-like behavior:  The Cynics.  

The Cynics were the hippies of the 3rd century BC, living simply with the fewest possessions possible.  For the Cynics, individual freedom was the most vital marker of a successful life.  They rejected and challenged traditional conventions, valuing, instead, living a life in accordance with nature.  

                                                          Image by Péter Göblyös from Pixabay

The Greek word “cynic” means dog-like.  Today we define a “cynic” as someone who views their fellow humans as motivated purely by selfish self-interest.  This is not the same meaning as what it means to be a capital “C” Cynic.  The Cynics were motivated by freedom, and like dogs, they were not embarrassed to beg in public or even to defecate in the streets.  Furthermore, like dogs, they often barked at people, expressing contempt for wealth, power, or privilege.

The scholar Gilbert Highet, described the Cynic philosophy as follows:

Live without conventions, which are artificial and false; escape complexities and superfluities and extravagances: only so can you live a free life. The rich man believes he possesses his big house with its many rooms and its elaborate furniture, his pictures and expensive clothes, his horses and his servants and his bank accounts. He does not. He depends on them, he worries about them, he spends most of his life's energy looking after them; the thought of losing them makes him sick with anxiety. They possess him. He is their slave. In order to procure a quantity of false, perishable goods he has sold the only true, lasting good, his own independence. (2)

The best-known of all the Cynics was Diogenes.  He was born in the Greek city of Sinope into a family of means.  His father, Hicesias, was the town’s mint master, responsible for issuing coins.  According to one legend, Diogenes and his father were exiled after Hicesias was accused of defacing the city’s coins.  Fleeing Sinope, Diogenes traveled to consult the oracle of Delphi.  When Diogenes asked what his next steps should be, the oracle replied, “Deface the currency.”  Diogenes took the oracle's response as a challenge to restamp the metaphorical currency of society, replacing its “counterfeit” values and conventional morality with something truly valuable and honest.

At this point he turned the shame of his exile into a badge of honor, proclaiming himself a cosmopolitan -- a citizen of the world (3).

Recall, Retrieve, Recite, Ruminate, Reflect, Reason:   How do the values of a Cynic like Diogenes contrast with traditional values?

Challenge - Dog Day Dogma

The Cynics looked to the dog for lessons on how to live a good life.  What other philosophical lessons or general lessons about life might we learn from examining the characteristics of man’s best friend?

Sources:  

1-Rao, Joe.  'Dog Days' of Summer Have Celestial Origin. 13 August 2010. Space.com

2-Highet, Gilbert.  DIOGENES AND ALEXANDER.

3- Miller, James.  Examined Lives - From Socrates to Nietzsche. 

New York:  Picador, 2011:  75-86.