Diogenes practiced philosophy as public performance rather than conversation
Evidence
While he was in Athens, Diogenes had come under the influence of Antisthenes, a disciple of Socrates. He was thus heir to a development in Greek thought that prized the capacity for individual reason over the hypocrisy of traditions and customs, even and especially if they were commonplace. But one of the differences between Socrates and Diogenes was that, while Socrates famously favored conversation, Diogenes practiced something closer to performance art. He lived his convictions out in the open and went to great lengths to shock people out of their habitual stupor, using a form of philosophy that was almost slapstick. — Jenny Odell, How to Do Nothing, 245
Categorization
- DEFINE: Establishes Diogenes’ method as performance rather than discourse — crucial to Odell’s argument that refusal can be a bodily, public act rather than withdrawal into speech.
- XREF: connects to: Diogenes refused civilization’s demands through public theatrical negation — Jenny Odell, How to Do Nothing: Resisting the…, 244; Philosophy legitimized material greed through lofty discourse that gained performative power — Wael Hallaq, Restating Orientalism: A Critique of…, 360; Diogenes’s ancient public acts anticipated twentieth-century performance art — Jenny Odell, How to Do Nothing: Resisting the…, 249 (+3 more)
- yield-rescued: below the book’s yield-target cutoff, included anyway for connecting to: Diogenes refused civilization’s demands through public theatrical negation — Jenny Odell, How to Do Nothing: Resisting the…, 244; Philosophy legitimized material greed through lofty discourse that gained performative power — Wael Hallaq, Restating Orientalism: A Critique of…, 360; Diogenes’s ancient public acts anticipated twentieth-century performance art — Jenny Odell, How to Do Nothing: Resisting the…, 249 (+3 more)
Broader Connections
- Philosophy legitimized material greed through lofty discourse that gained performative power
#complicates(0.75) — Wael Hallaq, Restating Orientalism, 360