Voice cast:

Jo Vossenkuhl as Diogenes,

Manfred Erdmann as Socrates,

Kathrin Anna Stahl as a Female student.

One day, two philosophers, Socrates and Diogenes, the main “provocateurs” of Antiquity, find themselves together in modern Munich. With a lamp in broad daylight, they both head to look for real humans in the company of the dog Argos. Although two thousand years have passed, they become an object of mockery by citizens, just like in ancient Athens. After they reach the Munich School of Philosophy on Kaulbach Street, the philosophers meet a girl student reading Plato’s works in its courtyard. The book provides a pretext for conversation, concluding that philosophy cannot be detached from reality, whether personal or social.

The animation can be perceived mainly as a promotional video for the Munich School of Philosophy. However, it also raises more profound and universal themes, including what it means to be human in the modern world and the relevance and role of philosophy today.

The two main characters, Diogenes and Socrates, are easily recognizable. Socrates’ face has characteristic rounded features; his beard and hairstyle are reminiscent of his ancient marble busts. In turn, Diogenes can be identified based on his attributes (the barrel – although not a pythos – and the dog sleeping inside it), or his first words Hey, old man, you’re blocking the sun! (0:24–0:27) which in the film, contrary to tradition, are not addressed to Alexander the Great, but Socrates. Nevertheless, Diogenes’ image is the same as in the past: skinny, ragged clothing, a sloppy beard and a messy hairstyle.

The first frames are not the only reference to Diogenes Laertius’ Lives of Eminent Philosophers (cf. D. L. VI.2.38). The whole plot is based on Laertius’ story of how Diogenes, with a lighted lamp in the middle of the day, was looking for a human being in the Athenian Agora (cf. D. L. VI.2.41). The modern inhabitants of Munich mock the philosopher (in this particular case, the philosophers) just like the ancient citizens of Athens. In the animation, the Cynic searches for real humans not on his own but with Socrates and the dog Argos, who willingly accompanies them on the streets of modern Munich, where, as Diogenes says, people continue to care only about the surface of life. Thus, the task to find real humans has remained relevant for over two thousand years and is pertinent to our society. In the modern world obsessed with consumption and image, such a finding seems particularly perplexing.

A girl student, whom Diogenes and Socrates meet at the Munich School of Philosophy, reads Plato. This is of particular significance since Plato, rather than his predecessors, is considered the father of modern philosophy. Hence, Socrates starts his provocation, asking the student, What is the truth? Although he does not receive a satisfactory answer, the girl says that the search for truth begins from reading the works of famous philosophers and then continues in a collective discussion. But should today’s philosophy studies be similar to classes at Plato’s Academy? Socrates recalls that philosophy, both then and today, deals with ideas and the real world. Indeed, philosophizing is not valuable in itself but its actual effects. Philosophy does not teach you how to talk but how to act, and therefore there is hope that modern people can become real human beings.

Foucault, Michel, The Courage of the Truth. The Government of Self and Others II. Lectures at the Collège de France, 1983–1984 [Le Courage de la vérité. Le gouvernement de soi et des autres, 1984], trans. Graham Burchell, Houndmills, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011.

Laertius, Diogenes, Lives of Eminent Philosophers, R.D. Hicks, ed., Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1972. Available online in the Perseus Digital Library (accessed: December 17, 2021).

Sloterdijk, Peter, Critique of Cynical Reason, Minneapolis: University Of Minnesota Press, 1988.

Frames from the animation (picture courtesy of Christof Wolf):

Diogenes and his dog Argos in Munich (4:25). 

Diogenes, Socrates, and Argos are looking for real humans in Munich (1:29).

Socrates argues with students in the library of the Munich School of Philosophy (3:12).

Diogenes, Socrates and Argos at the seminar (3:45).

Socrates speaking about philosophy (4:07).

The Thracian maid*, laughing at Diogenes and Socrates (1:45).

* The story of the Thracian woman laughing at Thales, as the animation director Christof Wolf points out, symbolizes the philosophers' characteristic unworldliness. According to this anecdote, one evening the thinker tripped and fell into a well, as he was looking at the stars while walking. This was seen by a Thracian maid, who mocked him, saying: "You want to know what is in the sky; but that which is before your feet remains hidden from you" (cf. Plato, Tht. 174a4–8).