Diogenes the Cynic is a Greek philosopher and one of the founders of Cynic philosophy.
Also known as Diogenes of Sinope, he is born in Sinope (modern-day Sinop, Turkey), an Ionian colony on the Black Sea, in 412 or 404 BCE and dies at Corinth in 323 BCE.
Diogenes of Sinope is a controversial figure.
His father minted coins for a living and when Diogenes takes to "defacement of the currency", he is banished from the city.
After being exiled, he moves to Athens to debunk cultural conventions.
Diogenes models himself on the example of Hercules.
He believes that virtue is better revealed in action than in theory.
He uses his lifestyle and behavior to criticize the social values and institutions of what he sees as a corrupt society.
He declares himself a cosmopolitan.
There are many tales about him dogging Antisthenes' footsteps and becoming his faithful hound, but it is by no means certain that the two men ever met.
Diogenes makes a virtue of poverty.
He begs for a living and sleeps in a tub in the marketplace.
He becomes notorious for his philosophical stunts such as carrying a lamp in the daytime, claiming to be looking for an honest man.
He publicly mocks Alexander and lives.
He embarrasses Plato, disputes his interpretation of Socrates and sabotages his lectures.
After being captured by pirates and sold into slavery, Diogenes eventually settles in Corinth.
There he passes his philosophy of Cynicism to Crates, who taught it to Zeno of Citium, who fashioned it into the school of Stoicism, one of the most enduring schools of Greek philosophy.
None of Diogenes’ many writings have survived, but details of his life come in the form of anecdotes (chreia), especially from Diogenes Laërtius, in his book Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers.
All we have is a number of anecdotes concerning his life and sayings attributed to him in a number of scattered classical sources, none of them definitive.
