Diogenes chicken how to#

Diogenes chicken how to#

Coming up to him, Plato said, 'My good Diogenes, if you knew how to pay court to Dionysius, you wouldn't have to wash vegetables.' 'And,' replied Diogenes, 'If you knew how to wash vegetables, you wouldn't have to pay court to Dionysius.' When Plato gave Socrates's definition of man as 'featherless bipeds' and was much praised for the definition, Diogenes plucked a chicken and brought it into Plato's Academy, saying, 'Behold! I've brought you a man.' After this incident, 'with broad flat nails' was added to Plato's definition.ĭiogenes was knee deep in a stream washing vegetables. Plato allowed himself a few moments to collect his thoughts, but Diogenes reached over and, tapping Plato's head with his finger, said 'I think you will find here is the 'emptiness''. 'Where is the 'emptiness' which precedes this empty cup?' asked Diogenes. 'That's because you have the eyes to see the cup,' said Plato, 'but', tapping his head with his forefinger, 'you don't have the intellect with which to comprehend 'cupness'.'ĭiogenes walked up to the table, examined a cup and, looking inside, asked, 'Is it empty?' Plato nodded. 'I can see the cups on the table,' said Diogenes, 'but I can't see the 'cupness''.

Plato was discoursing on his theory of ideas and, pointing to the cups on the table before him, said while there are many cups in the world, there is only one 'idea' of a cup, and this cupness precedes the existence of all particular cups.

Diogenes and Plato had several run-ins, which have sort of been passed down through the ages (so who knows how much of it is real).