El Perro Diógenes y el cínico moderno en la Era Contemporánea

Resum

The currency of cynical philosophy in the field of the humanities is demonstrated by the proliferation of publications on the issue in the last decade. The following essay is inserted within the studies of thought dedicated to the clarification of contemporary cynicism and its relationship with that ancient philosophy that took as its emblem the dog, a human partner characterized by its nature/culture hybridization. Our starting point is the figure of the proto-Cynic Diogenes of Sinope, whose heterodox and critical philosophy, of which we have no surviving writings, has been the subject of ambivalent opinions throughout history. The idiosyncrasy around his figure makes him a phenomenon of reception: an almost mythical character, subject to philosophical interpretations of all kinds. As a consequence, the adjective cynical, with which the philosopher was designated, has diversified its meaning to describe a detestable social attitude in our days. In this paper, we propose to make a journey with Diogenes in the contemporary era with the double objective, on the one hand, to understand the recoveries of his figure in contemporary philosophy and the contexts of debate; and, on the other hand, to contribute to clarify the controversial concept of modern cynicism, which is so in trend in our time to analyze culture, social psychology and debates about ideology