Diogenes of Sinope
c.412–323 BC · Hellenistic Philosophy · Renowned
Diogenes was a Cynic who turned philosophy into a public attack on false needs. He held that most of what you think you need was put in your head by other men. So he lived in a large ceramic jar, wanted nothing he could not supply himself, and did in the open what everyone else did behind a door. He walked Athens in daylight with a lit lamp, hunting one honest man. At Corinth he asked Alexander the Great to step out of his sunlight.
Signature
The position Diogenes is most identified with in the Profiler:
- Society
- leans Individualism
- Government
- Anarchy
Positions on the 5 axes the sources answer
- Society
- leans Individualism (75 on a 0–100 scale from Collectivism to Individualism)
- Meaning
- strongly leans Constructed (0 on a 0–100 scale from Constructed to Inherent)
- Nature
- leans Harmony (75 on a 0–100 scale from Mastery to Harmony)
- Ignorance
- leans Bondage (12 on a 0–100 scale from Bondage to Bliss)
- Allegiance
- strongly leans Global (94 on a 0–100 scale from Local to Global)
15 of 20 axes are left blank: the sources do not answer them, or Diogenes refused the framing. Nothing is imputed; a blank is not a middling score.
Foundational questions
- Theology
- Other
What is your position on the existence and nature of God or gods? - Government
- Anarchy
What is your ideal form of government? - Highest Good
- Virtue / Freedom
What is the highest good? - Good and Evil
- Social Invention
What is the fundamental nature of good and evil? - Knowledge
- Sense Experience
What is the ultimate foundation of knowledge? - Ethics Basis
- Virtue
What is the ultimate basis of ethics? - Agency
- Libertarian Free Will
What is the nature of human agency and freedom? - Economy
- Subsistence Economy
What is the ideal organization of economic life? - Authority
- Natural Law / Self-Sovereignty
What is the legitimate source of authority? - Language
- Conventional
What is the fundamental nature of language? - Law
- Cosmopolitan Rights
What is the ultimate source of legitimate law? - Human Nature
- Innate Good
What is human nature? - Primary Bond
- Self
What is your primary bond and loyalty?