jamesenge | Dial D for Diogenes (Reply)

Reading Diogenes Laertius through for the 1st time. Before I’d only read specific bios, like his account of Diogenes the Cynic.

DL seems to be agnostic regarding philosophic schools, interested in philosophy more from a historical and literary point of view, which mostly matches my interests.

I particularly enjoyed this wisecrack attributed to Thales:

ὅτε καὶ ἐρωτηθέντα διὰ τί οὐ τεκνοποιεῖ “διὰ φιλοτεκνίαν” είπεῖν.

“When someone asked him why he’d never had kids, he said, ‘Because I like kids.’ “

Something to toss back at people bemoaning the birth rate among millennials.

According to DL, Solon displayed the religious/philosophical dislike of myths common in guilt culture:

καὶ Θέσπιν ἐκώλυσε τραγῳδίας διδάσκειν, ὡς ἀνωφελῆ τὴν ψευδολογίαν.

“And he banned Thespis from producing tragedies, because lying stories were harmful.”

As a guy who likes myths and tragedies, I tend to resent this attitude. But DL’s Solon has a kind of point. In the same passage, DL goes on to say,

ὅτ’ οὖν Πεισίστρατος ἑαυτὸν κατέτρωσεν, ἐκεῖθεν ἔφη ταῦτα φῦναι.

“And so, when Pisistratos wounded himself, Solon said, ‘These things happen because of that stuff’ ” <i.e. tragedy>.

Which reminds me of our current tyrant, and how he owed his first term to a kind of lying story (reality TV) & probably owes his second term to a dramatically faked injury.

I’m not ready to burn my books yet, though. It’s people who understand fiction and myth who saw through Trump from the beginning.

As so often, when I turn to the ancient world for escape I see the modern world, like the face of Caliban, grinning back at me.