Jean-Manuel Roubineau: Diogenes of Sinope’s biographer (An invitation to reading)

Abstract

At the beginning of 2020 Jean-Manuel Roubineau published his book Diogène, l’antisocial, translated into Greek in 2022 as ΔΙΟΓΕΝΗΣ ο αντισυμβατικός, will also be published in English in 2023 with the title The Dangerous Life and Ideas of Diogenes the Cynic. Roubineau’s text will undoubtedly become a reference work for the study of cynical philosophy and especially on the life and thought of Diogenes, recounting his life from his birth in Sinope to be puzzling circumstances surrounding his death. In addition to philosophical teachings, Roubineau recounts the lessons that the life of Diogenes offers about disciplines such as economics, anthropology, sociology, and history (often ignored by researchers who pigeonhole the man of Sinope in an exclusively philosophical framework). My intention is limited to providing an overview of Jean-Manuel Roubineau’s book as an invitation to read it in its entirety. On the other hand, I being my exposition by pointing out the importance of a biographical work on the thinker of Sinope and I end with a reflection that leads to a paradox: How to combine the passive research on Diogenes’ thought with the practical action that he always made of philosophy?