Philosophers may have explained the universe, but some of them really needed to explain themselves. The same minds that wrestled with truth, virtue, and reality also managed to live lives even more puzzling than their ideas.
The Greek philosopher Diogenes (circa 400-325 BCE) dressed like a beggar, lived in an earthenware tub on the grounds of a temple in Athens, and was nicknamed “The Dog.”
The Greeks called his students the Cynics, from the Greek word kunikos, meaning “canine.” The students wore the epithet as a badge of honor, seeing themselves as the watchdogs of morality.
Diogenes wished to be buried like a dog.
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