Virtue, Pleasure, and Cause. A case of multi-target polemic? Diogenes of Oenoanda, fr. 32-33 Smith

In this article I examine the relation between virtue and pleasure, as presented by Diogenes of Oenoanda in fr. 32 and 33. In the first text Diogenes attacks those who identify the ultimate goal of life with virtue. By contrast, he upholds the Epicurean doctrine that happiness is the final goal towards which human nature strives, happiness equals pleasure and virtue, while productive of the final goal, does not coincide with it. In the second text, Diogenes opposes those who fail to understand that a productive relation exists between virtue and pleasure that is synchronic rather than consequential. As regards the first of the two fragments, commentators have all identified Diogenes’ rivals with the Stoics. As regards the second fragment, radically different interpretations have been advanced as to the identity of the philosopher’s rivals. According to Smith, in this passage Diogenes is carrying on his polemic against the Stoics. Sedley, by contrast, identifies Diogenes’s rivals with the Cyrenaics, who, while correctly identifying pleasure as the final aim and virtue as what leads to it, misunderstand the causal relation between the two. As I will show, not only fr. 33 is open to several interpretations, but even fr. 32 presents certain ambiguities which make the identity of Diogenes’ opponents far from obvious. In the present paper I will put forth an interpretation of Diogenes’ polemics which diverges from those provided so far. After examining the content of fr. 32 and 33 and elucidating those sections where several readings are possible, I will bring forward the hypothesis that Diogenes might be polemically engaging with different opponents – and that is to say: with rivals he addresses directly and who have sought to turn the doctrine of pleasure into a different, cruder form of pleasure; and rivals whom Diogenes addresses indirectly, and in relation to whom he feels compelled to clarify the Epicurean position.