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Diogenes the cynic: the war against the world[/caption]
The building blocks of Diogenes' philosophy
- Self sufficiency: only need yourself and dispense with societal support
- Shamelessness: be willing to break even the most sacrosanct rules to express absolute freedom
- Indifference: be unconcerned with things not within your control
- Insensibility: to become insensible to both pain and pleasure
- Ignorance: To limit intellectual activities to those that are of immediate value for human life
- Disciplined training:
commit to a program of self training that strengthens his character,
- lessens dependencies on social and physical needs,
- maintain his desires and impulses under strict rational control
- Strength of character:
aspire to develop in himself a character and physical constitution like those associated with Hercules
- that renders him impervious to vicissitudes and sufferings of human life
- Poverty:
understand that virtue and happiness cannot be found in the search and acquisition of physical possessions
- divest himself of as many things as possible,
- retaining the bare necessities to keep him alive and that assure him the freedom that Hercules esteemed as the most precious thing in the world
- Philanthrophy
Recognize his moral obligation to make himself useful in the task of dispelling illusions that rob people of their ability to be happy and live in accordance with nature
- Contempt for the opinions of many
renounce the need to be honored or appreciated by others
- welcome repudiation and insults
- look with contempt or suspicion at the values and customs by which people guide themselves