Throughout history, we humans have wanted to feel special, and often this has meant felling specialer than others. The Ancient Greek philosophers engaged in lively debates about which sorts of beings were more important: were they men? Fellow philosophers? Fellow (male) philosophers who agreed with each other? Diogenes the Cynic (d. 323 BCE) made fun of the weakness of many philosophers’ arguments in this arena, with one of the most famous staged at Plato’s Academy. Diogenes constantly ridiculed social pretensions, and at this moment, he attacked the idea that humans could easily be defined as separate (and therefore specialer) from the rest of animals. Plato had argued that a human could be defined as a “featherless biped.” Diogenes was said to have taken a plucked chicken into the Academy and declared: “Behold! I’ve brought you a man.” . . . Plato was forced to refine his definition by adding the characteristics “with broad flat nails” to distinguish humanity.
Source(s): Painting _Diogenes Sitting in His Tub_, by Jean-Leon Gerome (1860). Diogenes liked it when people compared him to dogs. He thought dogs kept it real.
