The Greek Praise of Poverty: Origins of Ancient Cynicism by
William D. Desmond University of Notre Dame Press, 240 pages,
$25 We all know the story: Carrying a lantern at midday into the
marketplace, the great Cynical philosopher Diogenes states that
he is searching for an honest man. As it happens, the source,
Diogenes Laertius, makes no mention of the marketplace or
honesty. But in whatever version, the story is a classic:
Diogenes-critical and incisive-in one of his many provocations,
defacing the currency, the customs, of the realm. Such
provocations earned him his moniker, the Dog, and his followers
their name, the Cynics. Diogenes is, in the history of ideas,
unique. Combine the poverty of St. Francis, the satire of
Rabelais, the moral critique of Nietzsche, add a dash of
Thoreau, and finish with a peculiar shamelessness. The ancients
reverenced him: In Diogenes Laertius' Lives of Eminent
Philosophers, only Zeno, Epicurus, and Plato garner more
attention. Modern scholarship, however, tells a different s