Lesson Ten

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Lesson Ten
Diogenes and Alexander Gilbert Highet
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Teaching Procedures

• About the Author
• About the Text
• Text structure
• Word Study
• Detailed Discussion of the Text
• In-class Discussion

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About the Author

• Gilbert Highet (19061978) was born in Glasgow,
  Scoltland, educated at Glasgow and at Oxford, and
  became a naturalized American citizen in 1951.He
  was known for his scholarly and critical writing.

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About the Text

• Cynic and Cynicism (??????????)
• The Oxford English Dictionary describes a cynic
  as a person disposed to rail or find fault
  and as one who shows a disposition to disbelieve
  in the sincerity or goodness of human motives and
  actions, and is wont to express this by sneers
  and sarcasm. In short ,the cynic is a sneering
  fault-finder

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About the Text

• The ancient school of Cynicism was founded in the
  fourth century BC by Antisthenes. The Cynics
  urged both men and women to follow a way of life
  in harmony with nature and to reject all
  unnecessary civilized luxuries. They also
  rejected all social conventions ,customs and
  laws.

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Text Structure

• Part One(para.1-10) Description of Diogenes as a
  beggar, a philosopher and a missionary, his
  lifestyle and doctrine Cynicism.
• Part Two(para.11-12) Description of Alexander the
  Conqueror, who was the greatest man of the time .
• Part Three(para.13-17) The dramatic encounter of
  the two , revealing that only these two men were
  the real free man in the world .

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Word Study

• lunatic adj.
• sb who behaves in a crazy or very stupid way
  a mad man
• word origin Insanity was once believed to be
  controlled by the moon and its phases. Lunatic
  literally means moonstruck, subject to the
  changes of the moon, and comes from the Latin
  word luna,moon.
• Know sb you are quite familiar with the person
• know of sb you have been told or you have
  read or heard about this person.

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Word Study

• mischievous adj.
• playing tricks on people or doing things to
  annoying or embarrass them
• e.g. a mischievous look/smile/trick
• a mischievous letter/rumor
• mischief n.
• mischief-maker n. person who deliberately cause
  trouble or discord
• abuse n. rude, angry, and offensive words

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Word Study

• squatter n.
• a person who lives in an empty building or on
  a piece of land without pay any rent.
• corrupt adj.
• very bad morally
• e.g. a corrupt society
• corruption n.
• dishonest, illegal, or immoral behavior
• cask n.
• a round wooden container used for storing wine
  or other liquids

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Word Study

• satirize vt.
• to use satire to make fun of peoples faults
• e.g. a play satirizing the fashion industry
• satire
• satirical
• convert v to
• to change or make someone change their
  opinion, belief or habit.
• e.g. I have converted to decaffeinated coffee.
• convert sb to sth
• e.g. My daughter finally converted me to Gun
  n Roses.

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Word Study

• expound vt. sth (to sb)
• (fml) explain or make sth clear by giving
  details
• e. g. He expounded his views on education to
  me at great length.
• doctrine n.
• a belief or set of beliefs that form the main
  part of a religion or system of ideas.
• e.g. Marxist doctrine, the doctrine of
  predestination
• elaborate adj.
• carefully worked out and full of details
• e.g. elaborate furniture/meals/plan/system/hair
  style

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Word Study

• extravagance n.
• the act of spending a lot of money on things
  that are not necessary
• e.g. His extravagance explains why he is
  always in debt.
• extravagantly adj.
• procure v. sth (for sb)
• to obtain sth, esp sth that is difficult to
  get
• e.g. The book is out of print and difficult to
  procure.
• procurement n.u (fml)
• e.g. the procurement of goods,raw materials,
  supplies,weapons

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Word Study

• perishable adj.
• easy to fall into decay if not kept under
  specific conditions.
• e.g. Perishable food should be stored in a
  refrigerator.
• perishables n. pl.
• goods (esp food) which go bad or decay
  quickly, such as fish or soft fruit
• missionary n.
• originally a person sent by a church to a
  foreign country to convert local people to
  Christianity
• Here a person who feels that he has a
  mission or sacred duty to do sth

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Word Study

• chivalrous adj.
• 1) behaving in a polite, kind, generous and
  honorable way, esp towards women
• 2) (in the Middle Ages) showing the qualities
  of a perfect knight.
• chivalry n. u
• emulate vt. sb (at sth)
• (fml) try to do as well as or better than sb
• e.g. She tried to emulate her ealder sister at
  the piano.
• emulation n. u
• e.g. She worked hard in emulation of her elder
  sister.

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Word Study

• paradox n.
• a statement that seems impossible because it
  contains two oppositing ideas that are both true.
• e.g. More haste, less speed is a well known
  paradox.
• paradoxical adj.
• unanimous adj. (in)
• 1) all agreeing on a decision or an opinion
• e.g. The villagers are unanimous in their
  opposition to the building of a bypass.
• 2) (of a decision, an opinion,etc) given or
  hold by everybody
• e.g. The proposal was accepted with unanimous
  approval.

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Detailed Discussion of the Text

• 1. He had done his business like a dog at the
  roadside, washed at the public fountain. (para.
  1)
• He had emptied his bowels or passed water like a
  dog at the roadside.
• 2. He knew they were mad, each in a different
  way. (para. 1)
• He knew they were mad, each in a different way.
  Some were mad about money some were mad about
  power some were mad about sex.

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Detailed Discussion of the Text

• 3. He thought everybody lived far too
  elaborately, expensively, anxiously. (Para 2)
• He thought that our life is too complicated, too
  costly, and gives us too much pressure. He argues
  that we should simplify our life.
• 4. He was not the first to inhabit such a thing.
  But he was the first who ever did so by choice,
  out of principle.
• He was not the first to live in a cask. But he
  was the first who ever did so because he wanted
  to, based on a principle, and not by necessity,
  not because he was forced to.

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Detailed Discussion of the Text

• 5. But he taught chiefly by example.
• Diogenes also taught by talking to people, but he
  mainly taught by setting an example for others to
  learn from or using living people around him as
  his examples.

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Detailed Discussion of the Text

• 6. in order to procure a quantity of false,
  perishable goods he has sold the only true,
  lasting good, his own independence.
• In order to get a certain amount of material
  properties or worldly possessions which actually
  have no value and will not last, he has allowed
  himself to be controlled by these things and has
  given away his own independence which is the only
  thing that is true and can last.

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Detailed Discussion of the Text

• 7. his lifes aim was clear to him it was to
  restamp the currency to take the clean metal of
  human life, to ,to imprint it with its true
  values. (para 5)
• Diogenes is using the analogy of restamping the
  currency to mean the change of human values.
  Human life, in his opinion, is like clean metal,
  but marked with false values, and it is his
  intension to wipe out the false markings and
  print true values on it.

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Detailed Discussion of the Text

• 8. Diogenes answered Im trying to find a man.
• He meant that all people he could see were only
  half men. Here the word man means a true man by
  Diogenes standard.
• 9. Diogenes took his old cask and began to roll
  it up and downI feel I ought to do something!
• This shows Diogeness attitude towards war. He
  obviously thinks that war is silly. War is fought
  over land and other worldly possessions.
  Therefore it does not make any sense for people
  who do no care for these possessions.

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Detailed Discussion of the Text

• 10. Only twenty, Alexander was far older and
  wiser than his years.
• Alexander looked far older than a man of his age
  normally does, and was much wiser than a man of
  his age normally is.
• 11. ..the young prince slept with the Iliad under
  his pillow and longed to emulate Achilles,Asia
  to ruin.
• Aristotle taught Alexander poetry. The young
  prince particularlly loved Homers poems, so much
  that he would sleep with the Iliad under his
  pillow and longed to follow Achilless example.
  His dream was to use his power for the exchange
  of Greek and Middle Eastern cultures.

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Detailed Discussion of the Text

• 12. Yes, Said the dog. stand to one side. You
  are blocking the sunlight.
• When Alexander asked Diogenes whether there was
  anything he could do for him, he of course was
  thinking of money, power, a job, a decent house
  or a warm garment. But Diogenes did not want any
  of these. What he wanted from the king was not to
  block the sunlight,not to interfere with his
  ife,not to stand in his way.

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Detailed Discussion of the Text

• 13. He understood Cynicism as the others could
  not.
• While ordinary people thought that Diogenes was
  either a lunatic or a beggar, Alexander
  understood him because he was also a philosopher
  in away, and that was why he later took one of
  Diogeness pupils along with him in his
  expedition to India as his philosophical
  interpreter.
• 14. He knew that of all men then alive in the
  world only Alexander the conqueror and Diogenes
  the beggar were free.
• Alexander thought that he was free because he had
  absolute power and Diogenes was free because he
  didn'tt need any power.

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In-class Discussion
Diogeness encounter with Alexander 1). What
does Diogenes mean when he says that Alexander is
blocking his sun? 2). He (Alexander) knew
that of all the men then alive I the world only
Alexander the conqueror and Diogenes the beggar
were free? Why?
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In-class Discussion

• Read for Details
• 1. She smiled, he frowned. Why? (para. 2)
• 2. What could Vera have seen in the man that made
  him not without attraction? (para 30)
• 3. Why do you think Vera sold the piano? (para
  42)
• 4. You are not going? (para 53)
• a) Why did Vera suddenly begin to unbutton
  her collar again and draw down her veil?
• b) What had the man said to hurt her feelings?

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In-class Discussion

• Read for Details
• 5. It simply was that we were such egoists, so
  self-engrossed, so wrapped up in ourselves that
  we had not a corner in our hearts for anybody
  else. Is this a pretty accurate description of
  the man himself? Do you think Vera is just like
  the man?