![]() Contrast this with Diogenes who lived in the here and now, taught by example and more importantly with actions, rather than words and we can begin to see why Diogenes appears to come out favourably in many of the recorded chreia. Plato relied on ideas like his Theory of Forms which is the idea that ideas are the basis for our reality. This battle was no less than a battle for the legacy of Socrates. ![]() Plato was a student of Socrates and Diogenes was a student of Antisthenes who was himself a student of Socrates. First and foremost, it contrasts Plato and his lofty theoretical ideas with Diogenes the pragmatist. The chreia that we have hold importance far beyond actual historical encounters. Usually it conformed to one of a few patterns, the most common being “On seeing…”, “On being asked…”, and “He said…”. That is, a chreia was shorter than a narration - often as short as a single sentence - but unlike a maxim, it was attributed to a character. Much of what we have is in the form of a chreia where more often than not, Diogenes appears to have the upper hand.Ī chreia was a brief, useful anecdote about a particular character. Despite being nearly 2300 years old, the battle continues to entertain as the long dead philosophers exchange witty remarks and insults like this from Diogenes “Being reproached with begging when Plato did not beg, “Oh yes,” says he, “he does, but when he does so ‘He holds his head down close, that none may hear.’” The historical accuracy of any such remarks is a by the by, a non event, irrelevant, we learn so much about the philosophy of Cynicism as well as seeing how far Plato's ideas evolved because of Diogenes that this trumps historical accuracy. Diogenes and Plato have been battling it out for hundreds of years, the stories have captured the imaginations of readers since ancient Greece through to today.
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