Troy Larsen

9/28/2017

PHIL 1000 TR 11:30-12:50

Philosophical Spotlight: Diogenes

@Diogenes_da_doge: Just talked to @Plato. Don’t understand how a man

that pompous is allowed to lead the Academy. What a shame.
#notmyphilosopher #makephilosophygreatagain

#notmyphilosopher: With this hashtag and with the tweet overall, I was trying to creatively

express the fact that Diogenes as a philosopher did not like Plato, who was sort of like his rival

at the time. The hashtag is a play on the not my president tweets that have sprung up pretty

much daily throughout this year as President Trump keeps doing more insane things. I decided

to use this because it’s like how Diogenes would’ve felt about Plato and about him being the

leader of the Academy. Diogenes thought Plato was pompous and very much unlike Socrates

because he lived in luxury. Diogenes was someone who cast aside all his material possessions

and decided to live homeless and not worry about things of the world. Plato being the exact

opposite of that would’ve fostered some resentment from Diogenes, and vice versa.

#makephilosophygreatagain: This is another hashtag that is hearkening back to politics in our

country today; namely because it is Donald Trump’s catchphrase. This time I am using it to

reference that with Plato in charge of the Academy and with Diogenes’s obvious hatred toward
him, Diogenes would most likely want to return to the days when Socrates was the most

famous philosopher that they all listened to. He felt that Socrates “practiced what he

preached” more than Plato did. In addition to this, Socrates’s style of living was like Diogenes

just not as extreme. Also, I’m sure having an academy to practice philosophy at all would’ve

been a little bit irritating to Diogenes. All of this shows that Diogenes probably wasn’t happy

with most of the people in philosophy those days and that’s why he spent most of his time just

wandering the streets being homeless and stuff. In conclusion, this tweet exemplifies what

Diogenes would’ve said back in the day when he needed to vent about being frustrated with

Plato and his philosophical ideas. Well actually, if Twitter had been a thing back in the day,

Diogenes would’ve needed a phone or computer to use it; and he doesn’t have material

possessions, so I guess the whole thing is redundant. Oh well; as many stoics would put it: it

doesn’t really matter anyways.