Good day and happy Saturday everyone, I’m Elena and thanks to be here on Alessandro III di Macedonia- Alexander the Great and Hellenism! Today I’ve an interesting English translation of a book that will be very interesting for me and I’ll explain everything if you keep reading the article!
The Dangerous Life and Ideas of Diogenes the Cynic
by Jean-Manuel Roubineau
(Diogène. L’antisocial, Presses Universitaires de France, 2020)
Translator from French: Malcolm DeBevoise, Editor: Phillip Mitsis
Oxford University Press, 30 August 2023
An engaging look at the founder of one of the most important philosophical schools of ancient Greece.
The ancient philosopher Diogenes—nicknamed “The Dog” and decried by Plato as a “Socrates gone mad”—was widely praised and idealized as much as he was mocked and vilified. A favorite subject of sculptors and painters since the Renaissance, his notoriety is equally due to his infamously eccentric behavior, scorn of conventions, and biting aphorisms, and to the role he played in the creation of the Cynic school, which flourished from the 4th century B.C. to the Christian era. In this book, Jean-Manuel Roubineau paints a new portrait of an atypical philosopher whose life left an indelible mark on the Western collective imagination and whose philosophy courses through various schools of thought well beyond antiquity.
Roubineau sifts through the many legends and apocryphal stories that surround the life of Diogenes. Was he, the son of a banker, a counterfeiter in his hometown of Sinope? Did he really meet Alexander the Great? Was he truly an apologist for incest, patricide, and anthropophagy? And how did he actually die? To answer these questions, Roubineau retraces the known facts of Diogenes’ existence.
Beyond the rehashed clichés, this book inspires us to rediscover Diogenes’ philosophical legacy—whether it be the challenge to the established order, the detachment from materialism, the choice of a return to nature, or the formulation of a cosmopolitan ideal strongly rooted in the belief that virtue is better revealed in action than in theory.
Jean-Manuel Roubineau, Translated by Malcolm DeBevoise, Translator of French and English, and Edited by Phillip Mitsis, A.S. Onassis Professor, New York University.
Jean-Manuel Roubineau is a specialist in ancient history. He previously published Milon de Crotone ou l’Invention du Sport and Les cités grecques, winner of the European History Book Prize in 2016. Phillip Mitsis is Alexander S. Onassis Professor of Hellenic Culture and Civilization, Professor of Classics and Hellenic Studies, and affiliated Professor of Philosophy and Medieval and Renaissance Studies at New York University.
- A new biography of one of antiquity’s most influential and controversial thinkers
- Presents the ideas of Cynicism, which would find full expression in the school of Stoicism
- Takes a modern look at a legends and facts surrounding this philosophical figure
- Written accessibly for a general readership
Hardback
ISBN: 978-0197666357
Publishing date: 30 August 2023 (Estimated)
208 Pages | 6
210 x 140 mm
£ 14.99
eBook or Digital edition or Kindle
This title is available as an ebook. To purchase, visit your preferred ebook provider.
This title was originally released in French version with the title Diogène. L’antisocial by Presses Universitaires de France in 2020 and it interests me a lot because it speaks of a singular character of antiquity and there will certainly be references to Alexander the Great; talks about the cynical philosophy that interests me; finally, the great price because I pre-ordered the hardback on Amazon for just over € 17!
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Thank you all, have a good day
Alessandro III di Macedonia 