ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on Cynicism as a particularly illuminating illustration of the peculiar and unique relationship between truth, practice, and life that characterized ancient thought. After outlining the main characteristics of the Cynic way of life and exploring the meaning of Plato’s description of Diogenes as a “Socrates gone mad,” the chapter relies on Foucault’s analysis of Cynicism in his final lecture course, The Courage of Truth, to clarify how the Cynics scandalous actualization of the true life eventually resulted in an ambiguous relation to other philosophical schools of the same period. The chapter concludes with a clarification of Cynicism as a “broken mirror” that simultaneously reflected and distorted the image of ancient philosophy while at the same time amplifying its most fundamental traits.
