The Dangerous Life and Ideas of Diogenes The Cynic
Jean-Manuel Roubineau
Jul 2024 · Tantor Media Inc · Narrated by James Cameron Stewart
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4 hr 30 min
Unabridged
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About this audiobook
The ancient philosopher Diogenes-nicknamed "The Dog" and decried by Plato as a "Socrates gone mad"-was widely praised and idealized as much as he was mocked and vilified. A favorite subject of sculptors and painters since the Renaissance, his notoriety is equally due to his eccentric behavior, scorn of conventions, and biting aphorisms, and to the role he played in the creation of the Cynic school, which flourished from the 4th century B.C. to the Christian era. Jean-Manuel Roubineau paints a new portrait of an atypical philosopher whose life left an indelible mark on the Western collective imagination and whose philosophy courses through various schools of thought well beyond antiquity. Roubineau sifts through the many legends and apocryphal stories that surround the life of Diogenes. Was he a counterfeiter? Did he meet Alexander the Great? Was he an apologist for incest, patricide, and anthropophagy? How did he actually die? Roubineau retraces the known facts of Diogenes' existence. Beyond the rehashed cliches, this book inspires us to rediscover Diogenes' philosophical legacy-whether it be the challenge to the established order, the detachment from materialism, the choice of a return to nature, or the formulation of a cosmopolitan ideal strongly rooted in the belief that virtue is better revealed in action than in theory.
About the author
Jean-Manuel Roubineau is a specialist in ancient history. He previously published Milon de Crotone ou l'Invention du Sport and Les cites grecques, winner of the European History Book Prize in 2016.
Trained at Hull University and the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, James Cameron Stewart is a veteran actor whose performances include roles in theater, film, and television. His credits include Outlander, Jericho, Flying Blind, Golden Years, Emmerdale, London's Burning, Eastenders, Coronation Street, and Holby City.
Phillip Mitsis is Alexander S. Onassis Professor of Hellenic culture and civilization, professor of classics and Hellenic studies, and affiliated professor of philosophy and medieval and Renaissance studies at New York University.
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