Unit 10 Diogenes and Alexander

1.If the world were to follow Diogenes, what would be the results?

2.Does Diogenes remind you of any ancient Chinese philosopher? Would you like to make a comparison between them?

Cynic and Cynicism (愤世疾俗者与犬儒主义 ) ：The Oxford English Dictionary describes a cynic as a person “ disposed to find fault “ and as one who “shows a disposition to disbelieve in the sincerity or goodness of human motives and actions, and is wont to express this by sneers and sarcasm.” In short ,the cynic is “a sneering fault-finder” The ancient school of Cynicism was founded in the fourth century BC by Antisthenes. The Cynics urged both men and women to follow a way of life in harmony with nature and to reject all unnecessary civilized luxuries. They also rejected all social conventions ,customs and laws.

Diogenes was a famous Cynic philosopher living during the time of Plato ( the 4th century BC ). Having to flee from Sinope because of charges against him and his father for debasing the public coin , Diogenes went to Athens where he studied under comforts of civilized life , and lived an extremely ascetic lifestyle. Later on the captured by pirates and sold into slavery in Crete to Xeniades, who was so impressed by the philosopher that he made him the teacher of his children . He is said to have died of old age in the same year as Alexander the Great in 323 BC.

Part One (para.1-10) Description of Diogenes as a beggar, a philosopher and a missionary, his lifestyle and doctrine: Cynicism.

Part Two (para.11-12) Description of Alexander the Conqueror, who was the greatest man of the time .

Part Three(para.13-17) The dramatic encounter of the two , revealing that only these two men were the real free man in the world .

to scratch each other’s backs : 互相挠背（串通一气做互相有利的不正当的事情）．to do business with that country : 和那个国家做生意．publish or perish : 不出版，就完蛋。（西方学界口号）．to found a new religion : 建立一个新的宗教to convert RMB into foreign currency : 将人民币换成外币to seek the truth : 寻找真理to discard the old traditions : 抛掉旧的传统to satirize human vanity : 讽刺人的虚荣to inhabit that island : 在那岛上住人to neglect one’s duty : 玩忽职守to escape the consequences : 逃避后果to erase it from one’s memory : 从记忆中消除to take command : 负责指挥to block one’s way : 挡路to ruin one’s reputation : 毁掉名誉

(1) Not only do we want it now ;we don’t even want to be kept waiting for it .A phrase of negative form or meaning occurs at the beginning of a sentence/clause.(2) Robert never forgot that blessed Christmas. Nither did his father.An elliptical sentence begins with so,or nor, or neither(3) Only after much persuasion did Lao Liu agree to be our coach.A sentence begins with only when followed by an expression of manner, place ,time, or reason (4) At the head of the parade marched the guards of honor.A sentence / clause begins with an adverbial of place or position

Paraphrase 1. ... he looked like a beggar or a lunatic. lunatic: (offensive slang abbreviation: loony) an insane or mad or crazy person; someone who is extremely foolish or reckless2. He had ... done his business like a dog at the roadside, washed at the public fountain. He had emptied his bowels or passed water like a dog at the roadside. It is interesting to observe how euphemisms work.. is used as a noun suffix, e. g.a few mouthfuls; a spoonful of honey? a glassful of beerto scoop: to lift out as if with a scoop (ladle)

3. with a few handfuls of water scooped from the spring.handful: Remind students that "-ful" here4. out of his hollowed hands: from his hands which join together to form a cup or hollow (empty space)5. Sometimes they threw bits of food, and got scant thanks; sometimes a mischievous pebble, and got a shower of stones and abuse. (Notice the parallel structure of this sentence.)

a mischievous pebble: a pebble from a mischievous personabuse: rude, angry, and offensive words 骂人的话，谩骂6. He knew they were mad, each in a different way. He knew they were mad, each in a different way. Some were mad about money; some were mad about power; some were mad about sex, etc.

7. It was not .. .even a squatter's hut. A squatter is a person who lives in an empty building or on a piece of land without permission and without paying any rent. A squatter's hut naturally is in a poor condition.

8. He thought everybody lived far too elaborately, expensively, anxiously. He thought that our life is too complicated, too costly, and gives us too much pressure.

9. the animals live healthy lives. Diogenes's answer to the human problems is to go back to nature, and he does not see why we can't because natural lives are very healthy lives.10. garment: The technical term for any article of clothing. There are of course special terms for special kinds of garments or clothes such as "shirt", "dress", "jacket", "vest", "skirt" etc. which proves Diogenes's point when he says life is too complicated.

Post-reading discussions

1. What was Diogenes’ philosophy?

2. What did Diogenes value most?

3. What kind of life can be called a simple life?

4. What does “to restamp the currency” mean?

Pre-reading discussions

Read the text and listen to the recording. Try to understand as much as possible with the help of the notes, glossary, dictionaries and reference books. 2) What kinds of needs do you want to satisfy yourself?3) Can you classify them? What are they?4) If your needs cannot be satisfied, what will you feel? What will you do?

Background knowledge

A marriage licence (spelled license in American English)

Text analysis

Part I (Para. 1-2)  The author decided to camp in the Central Park .Part II (Para. 3-6) The first or two hours and his feeling and the fear Central Park inspired Part (Para. 7-12) Central Park history Ⅲand another scarePart (Para. 13-25) My sleep over in Ⅳthe wood

Language Focus

Introduction to the text

languge points 1.All five needs are built into our genetic structure as instructions for how we must attempt to live our lives. Humans are born with the five needs/All five needs are inborn as part of our nature and direct us as we go through our lives. build in/into: to cause to be part of sth which cannot be separated or removed from it; to make... inherent, e. g. We don't want to build in too much furniture, just a bookcase and two wardrobes.I hope you'll build some entertainment into the schedule for the training.

2. our biological destiny: what we have to experience as humans; to go through childhood, adolescence, adulthood and old age, to produce offspring and die

3.When we attempt to satisfy the non-essential psychological needs, such as belonging, fun, freedom, and especially power, we run into more difficulty. The higher, or psychological, needs are not so clear-cut and not so easy to satisfy.

run into: to begin to experience (difficulty); get into (a difficult or unpleasant situation), e. g.

After successive crop failures. Farmer Jones ran into debt.

4.Even politicians try to appear humble, emphasizing how much they wish to serve and how little they want to tell us what to do. Even politicians try to cover up their desire for power by saying that they are running for an office because they want to do things for their community and that they really hate to govern people.

5. They preach the virtues of humility because the more people they can persuade to be humble, the more easily they can both preserve and add to the power that they have.

They advocate humility praising it as an admirable quality because they know the more

people they make humble, the more easily they can keep and strengthen the power they have seized.

add to: to increase, e. g.

The storm added to the difficulty of the sailors.

6. Successful politicians are masters of this approach and the same expertise is not unknown in business, higher education and even religion. Successful politicians are very skillful in using this technique of sharing a little power with the people and this approach is also used by businessmen, leaders in higher education and even in religion.

master: a person who is skilled at sth, e. g. masters of disguise

unknown adj: never happening or existing

7. If you look around in any society, you cannot fail to see the all-pervasive effect of this need. You can find without fail that this need for power is affecting all sections of any society. (In the rest of paragraph, the writer goes on to show this pervasiveness of the human need for power.

Post-reading discussions

1. What do you think of William Glasser’s classification of needs?

2. To you, which one is the most important?

3. If you have to abandon one or two of them, which will you choose?