The Lamp of Diogenes and the Writing Tablets

by Ben Atlas on 12.1.2010.4:39pm · 0 comments

Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione, Diogenes illuminating the world with his lamp. Museo del Prado, Madrid

Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione, Diogenes illuminating the world with his lamp. Museo del Prado, Madrid

Celebrate the life and the wisdom of Diogenes of Sinope, the eternal light, the man who ridiculed Plato, spoke down to Alexander the Great and lived. Diogenes was famous for going around Athens with a lamp, even during the day, looking for a true man.

“Diogenes is much like Socrates… regarding the superiority of direct verbal interaction over the written account. Diogenes scolds Hegesias after he asks to be lent one of Diogenes’ writing tablets: “You are a simpleton, Hegesias; you do not choose painted figs, but real ones; and yet you pass over the true training and would apply yourself to written rules”

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