Transcript Lesson Ten Diogenes and Alexander Gilbert Highet

Lesson Ten
Diogenes and Alexander
Gilbert Highet
Teaching Procedures
About the Author
About the Text
Text structure
Word Study
Detailed Discussion of the Text
In-class Discussion
About the Author
Gilbert Highet (1906—1978) 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.
About the Text
Cynic and Cynicism (愤世疾俗者与犬儒主义) ：
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 faultfinder”
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.
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 .
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.
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
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
Word Study
satirize: vt.
to use satire to make fun of people’s 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.
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/hairstyle
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
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Detailed Discussion of the Text
7. his life’s 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.
Detailed Discussion of the Text
8. Diogenes answered “I’m 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 down…”I feel I ought to do something!”
This shows Diogenes’s 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.
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 Homer’s poems, so much that he
would sleep with the Iliad under his pillow and longed to
follow Achilles’s example. His dream was to use his
power for the exchange of Greek and Middle Eastern
cultures.
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.
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 Diogenes’s 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't’t
need any power.
In-class Discussion
Diogenes’s 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?
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?
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?