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Diogenes the Cynic on Law and World Citizenship polis, The Journal for Ancient Greek Political Thought 35 (2018) 478-498 brill.com/polis Diogenes the Cynic on Law and World Citizenship Christopher Paone Western Connecticut State University, 181 White St, Danbury, CT 06810, USA / Sacred Heart University, 5151 Park Ave, Fairfield, CT 06825, USA [email protected] / paonec@ sacredheart.edu Abstract Against the traditional reading of Cynic cosmopolitanism, this essay advances the thesis that Diogenes’ world citizenship is a positive claim supported by philosophi- cal argument and philosophical example. Evidence in favor of this thesis is a new interpretation of Diogenes’ syllogistic argument concerning law (nomos) (D.L. 6.72). Important to the argument are an understanding of Diogenes’ philanthropic character and his moral imperative to ‘re-stamp the currency’. Whereas Socrates understands his care as attached specially to Athens, Diogenes’ philosophical mission and form of care attach not to his native Sinope but to all humanity. An important result is that Diogenes’ Cynicism provides an ancient example of cosmopolitanism that is philan- thropic, minimalistic, experimental, and utopian. Keywords Diogenes of Sinope – Cynicism – cosmopolitanism – law – citizenship 1 When Diogenes of Sinope (hereafter Diogenes) was asked where he was from, he replied that he was a citizen of the world (kosmopolitēs) (D.L. 6.63, 6.72).1 But what does ‘citizen of the world’ mean for the Cynic philosopher infamous for his biting wit and contempt for convention? Are there substantive philo- sophical commitments or argumentation supporting his self-identification 1 D.L. = R. D. Hicks (ed. and trans.), Diogenes Laertius: Lives of Eminent Philosophers, 2 vols. (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1925), [book number].[section number]. © koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2018 | doi:10.1163/20512996-12340176Downloaded from Brill.com10/01/2021 06:03:16PM via free access Diogenes the Cynic on Law and World Citizenship 479 as world citizen? Or, is this one of his barbs aimed at mocking traditional Greek life? This essay advances the thesis that Diogenes’ world citizenship is a posi- tive claim supported by philosophical argument and philosophical example. Evidence in favor of this thesis includes a new interpretation of the controver- sial syllogistic argument concerning law (nomos) reported by Diogenes Laërtius (hereafter D.L.) and a consideration of Diogenes’ way of life as portrayed in the Cynic anecdotal tradition (D.L. 6.72). Important for both aspects of my argu- ment are an understanding of Diogenes’ philanthropic character and his moral imperative to ‘re-stamp the currency’, that is, the Cynic practice of ridding soci- ety of moral and political counterfeits (D.L. 6.20-1, 6.70-1).2 Briefly, I argue that Diogenes’ syllogistic argument shows an inconsistency in the ancient Greek understanding of law. The traditional ancient Greek view is that one becomes virtuous by living according to law (nomos) and its prescriptions, but the tradi- tionally ineluctably local understanding of law, according to Diogenes, draws one further from true law, namely, a Cynic life of virtue in accordance with nature, to which he exhorts everyone.3 Hence, Diogenes, in Cynic fashion, intends to re-stamp law: Law is not conventional but natural, not local but universal. The true citizen belongs not to any one city but to the cosmos. So whereas Socrates, in whose footsteps Diogenes follows, understands his philo- sophical mission and form of care as attached specially to Athens, Diogenes’ philosophical mission and form of care attach not to his native Sinope but to all humanity.4 If my argument is correct, then Diogenes’ Cynicism provides an ancient example of cosmopolitan practice that is, as I will conclude by attend- ing to his philosophic way of life, philanthropic, minimalistic, experimental, and utopian in character. In the following sections of the essay I will briefly 2 On the philanthropic character of Cynicism, see J. Moles, ‘“Honestius Quam Ambitiosius”? An Exploration of the Cynic’s Attitude to Moral Corruption in His Fellow Men’ in The Journal of Hellenic Studies, 103 (1983), pp. 103-123, esp. pp. 113-6. On re-stamping the currency see R. B. Branham and M.-O. Goulet-Cazé (eds.), The Cynics: The Cynic Movement in Antiquity and Its Legacy (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1996), pp. 8-9, 24-5 and W. Desmond, The Greek Praise of Poverty: Origins of Ancient Cynicism (Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 2006), pp. 16-7, p. 179n51. 3 On nomos, its meanings, and its subsequent opposition to phusis, see W. K. C. Guthrie, The Sophists (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1971), p. 55ff. 4 See, for example, Plato’s Apology, Crito or the Theaetetus with R. Kraut, Socrates and the State (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1984); G. Vlastos, ‘The Historical Socrates and Athenian Democracy’ in M. Burnyeat (ed.), Socratic Studies (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1994); and T. C. Brickhouse and N. D. Smith, Plato’s Socrates (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 1994). But see also E. Brown, ‘Socrates the Cosmopolitan’, Stanford Agora: An Online Journal of Legal Perspectives, 1 (2000), pp. 74-87. Polis, The Journal for Ancient Greek Political ThoughtDownloaded from35 (2018) Brill.com10/01/2021 478-498 06:03:16PM via free access 480 Paone sketch some of the interpretative difficulties that face arguments concern- ing Cynicism and the meanings of cosmopolitanism (Section 2). Then, I will offer a new interpretation of Diogenes’ syllogistic argument in the context of Diogenes’ philosophic way of life (Section 3). Finally, I draw out several philo- sophical consequences of this new interpretation (Section 4). 2 As with nearly all the ancient Greek Cynic philosophers, the central diffi- culty for answering these questions is the dearth of reliable evidence. None of the writings attributed to Diogenes is extant. Like Socrates, he has become a literary figure, besides an historical one, and the two traditions, literary and historical, are thoroughly intermingled. The largest body of evidence for Diogenes is D.L.’s Lives of Eminent Philosophers, dating to the early half of the third century CE, over 500 years after Diogenes’ death (D.L. 6.20-81). D.L. offers many stories and sayings drawn from an anecdotal tradition, but it is not always clear how the sources, from which D.L. is working, intend to represent Diogenes. For example, some scholars argue that D.L.’s sources intend to show the Cynics as an important link in the succession from Socrates to the Stoics.5 If this evaluation is correct, then the most extensive source for the historical Diogenes may already be too contaminated with Stoicism to catch sight of an accurate picture of what thinking and arguments, if any, Diogenes himself would have offered in favor of his claim to be a world citizen. There are also several other sources for the Cynics earlier than D.L., but these face similar difficulties. These sources are either Stoic philosophers (Musonius and Epictetus) and their students (Dio Chrysostom) or satirists intending to mock the Cynics of their own time (Lucian). Additionally, there are fifty-one pseudepigraphical letters attributed to Diogenes, some of which date to the late first century BCE, others as late as the second century CE. These letters would represent our earliest extant writings of the Cynics in their own words. Scholars have shown, however, that the letters are the product of mul- tiple authors, probably written at different times, and later collected together.6 Moreover, the letters attributed to Diogenes are accompanied by other letters 5 See P. A. Vander Waerdt, The Socratic Movement (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1994), p. 241ff. 6 See in particular the introduction to Malherbe’s edition and collection, including bibliogra- phy, in A. J. Malherbe (ed.), The Cynic Epistles: A Study Edition (Atlanta, GA: Scholars Press, 1977), pp. 1-5, 14-21. Polis, The Journal for Ancient Greek Political ThoughtDownloaded from35 (2018) Brill.com10/01/2021 478-498 06:03:16PM via free access Diogenes the Cynic on Law and World Citizenship 481 attributed to philosophers not typically considered Cynics but who articulate views sympathetic to Cynicism. Because of the uncertain origin and dating of these letters, it may be difficult to discern what thought may be authen- tic. Nevertheless, the letters at least adhere to the spirit of Diogenes and his Cynicism, if not to the letter. On the questions of Diogenes’ use of kosmopolitēs and the status of his world citizenship there are generally two scholarly fronts. On the first front, the scholarship is concerned with whether Diogenes’ world citizenship is negative or positive.7 In other words, ‘negative’ means that world citizenship is intended to deny or reject the usual obligations Greek citizens of the same city-state may have to one another, whereas ‘positive’ means that world citizenship has some additional content all of its own, whatever that content may be. If his world citizenship is negative, then his self-identification is a rejection of life in the typical ancient Greek city, and of the social and political duties attached to it, and nothing more than this rejection of traditional values. In other words, Diogenes is simply saying, ‘I am not one of you’. If his world citizenship is positive, then the rejection of the typical ancient Greek city may also imply the character of a life that bears with it other kinds of duties, perhaps even of the universalist character that some modern conceptions of cosmopolitan- ism advocate. 7 The typical negative interpretation is clearly paraphrased by P. Kleingeld and E. Brown, ‘Cosmopolitanism’ in E. N. Zalta (ed.), The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (2014), http:// plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2014/entries/ cosmopolitanism, §1.1: [T]he first philosopher in the West to give perfectly explicit expression to cosmopolitan- ism was the Socratically inspired Cynic Diogenes in the fourth century BCE….
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