Cosmopolitan monism versus cosmopolitan pluralism. Cynics and Stoics – the two opposite foundations of moral cosmopolitanism
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.26485/SPE/2021/121/3Keywords:
moral cosmopolitanism, world citizenship, Cynic cosmopolitanism, Stoic cosmopoli¬tanism, kosmopolis, cosmopolitan attitudeAbstract
Background. At the turn of the XXI Century, cosmopolitanism became the subject of intensive research. One of the key points of this research questions the relationship between national and cosmopolitan identity.
Research purpose. The purpose of the conducted research is to compare the two models of cosmopolitanism in which the abovementioned relationship is the central point of reference. The most instructive examples come from the ancient conceptions of moral cosmopolitanism: the Greek Cynics on one hand, and the Stoics on the other.
Methods. Using the historical comparative and the critical method, the article examines the two ancient answers to the crucial question. The Cynic conception relies on the monistic, whereas the Stoic on the pluralistic model of the relationship between national and cosmopolitan identity. According to the monistic approach, the commitment to the universal, cosmopolitan „laws of virtue” always enjoys priority over the commitment to the national or local community. By contrast, the pluralistic conception of the Stoic oikeiosis grants priority to the local and the national, rather than to the cosmopolitan identity.
Conclusions. The comparison between the two opposite moral-psychological attitudes indicates that the “crude” monistic attitude of the Cynics is more morally consistent than the more psychologically sublime, pluralistic attitude of the Stoics. Similar to the Cynics, the Stoics strongly emphasize the universal standards of virtue, but at the same time they require following local conventions. The constant tension between particularism and universalism included in the Stoic conception may result in deep moral conflict between universal cosmopolitan standards of humanity and particular “partisan” rules required by the nation-state.
References
Annas J., The Morality of Happiness, Oxford University Press, New York 1993.
Appiah K.A., Kosmopolityzm: Etyka w świecie obcych, Prószyński i S-ka, Warszawa 2008.
Beck U., Władza i przeciwwładza w epoce globalnej. Nowa ekonomia polityki światowej, Scholar, Warszawa 2005.
Beck U., Grande E., Europa kosmopolityczna. Społeczeństwo i polityka drugiej nowoczesności, Scholar, Warszawa 2009.
Bevan E., Stoics and Sceptics, Oxford University Press, Oxford 1913.
Brock G., Brockhouse H., The Political Philosophy of Cosmopolitanism, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2005.
Brock G., Contemporary Cosmopolitanism: Some Current Issues, Philosophy Compass 2013/8/8, s. 689–698.
Brown G.W., Held D., The Cosmopolitanism: Reader, Polity Press, Cambridge 2010.
Brown G.W., Moving from cosmopolitan legal theory to legal practice: models of cosmopolitan law, Legal Studies 2008/3, s. 430–451.
Coppleston F., Historia filozofii, t. I, PAX, Warszawa 1988.
Cyceron, Pisma filozoficzne, t. II, PWN, Warszawa 1960.
Dimitrakopoulos M., Zur Bestimmung des Oikeion-Begriffs bei Platon. Eine begriffsgeschichtliche Untersuchung, Philosophia 1982/12, s. 190–210.
Diogenes Laertios, Żywoty i poglądy słynnych filozofów, PWN, Warszawa 1982.
Dockstadter J., Cynic Cosmopolitanism, European Journal of Political Theory 2018/20, s. 272–289.
Drałus D., Kręgi przynależności. Przyczynek do dziejów kosmopolityki, Studia Krytyczne 2018/6, s. 77–93.
Erler M., Stoic Oikeiosis and Xenophon’s Socrates, w: Th. Scaltsas A.S. Mason (red.), Zeno of Citium and His Legacy: The Philosophy of Zeno, The Municipality of Larnaca, Larnaca 2002, s. 239–258.
Firth R., Ethical Absolutism and the Ideal Observer, Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 1952/12, s. 317–345.
Gould J.B., The Philosophy of Chrysippus, E.J. Brill, Leiden 1971.
Grahn-Wilder M., Gender and Sexuality in Stoic Philosophy, Palgrave Macmillan, New York 2018.
Hard R., Diogenes and the Cynics. Saying Anecdotes with Other Popular Moralists, Oxford University Press, Oxford 2012.
Hicks R.D., Diogenes Laertius. Lives of the Eminent Philosophers, Vol. 2, Cambridge MA, Harvard University Press 1925.
Hinman L., Ethics. A Pluralist Approach to Moral Theory, Thomson Wadsworth, Belmont 2008.
Jedan Ch., Stoic Virtues. Chrysippus and the Religious Character of Stoic Ethics, Continuum, London, New York 2009.
Johncock W., Stoic Philosophy and Social Theory, Palgrave Macmillan 2020.
Long A.A., Socrates in Hellenistic Philosophy, w: A.A. Long (red.), Stoic Studies, University of California Press, Berkeley, Los Angeles, London 2002, s. 1–34.
Long A.A., From Epictetus to Epicurus. Studies in Hellenistic and Roman Philosophy, Clarendon Press, Oxford 2006.
Marek Aureliusz, Rozmyślania, Wydawnictwo Marek Derewiecki, Kęty 2015.
Meijer P.A., A New Perspectives on Anthistenes. Logos, Predicate and Ethics in his Philosophy, Amsterdam University Press, Amsterdam 2017.
Moles J.L., Cynic Cosmopolitanism, w: R. Bracht Branham, M.-O. Goulet-Caze (red.), The Cynic Movement in Antiquity and its Legacy, University of California Press, Berkeley, Los Angeles 1996, s. 105–120.
Nussbaum M., The Therapy of Desire. Theory and Practice in Hellenistic Ethics, Princeton University Press, Princeton 1994.
Pembroke S.G., Oikeiosis, w: A.A. Long (red.), Problems in Stoicism, London 1971, s. 136–157.
Pogge Th., Cosmopolitanism and Sovereignty, Ethics 1992/103, s. 48–75.
Ramelli I., Hierocles the Stoic. Elements of Ethics, Fragments and Excerpts, Society of Biblical Literature, Atlanta 2009.
Reydams-Schils G., The Roman Stoics: Self, Responsibility, and Affection, The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 2005.
Rist J.M., Stoic Philosophy, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1969.
Schlereth Th. Jr., The Cosmopolitan Ideal in Enlightenment Thought: Its Forms and Function in the Ideas of Franklin, Hume, and Voltaire, 1694–1790, University of Notre Dame Press, Notre Dame 1977.
Schofield M., Stoic Ethics, w: B. Inwood (red.), The Cambridge Companion to the Stoics, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2003, s. 233–256.
Seneka Lucjusz Anneusz, Dialogi, Pax, Warszawa 1998.
Stobaios I., Anthologii, Berolini apud Weidmannos 1884.
Szestow L., Ateny i Jerozolima, Znak, Kraków 1993.
Świeżawski S., Dzieje europejskiej filozofii klasycznej, Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN, Warszawa– Wrocław 2000.
Tatarkiewicz W., Historia filozofii, t. 1, PWN, Warszawa 1990.
Zirk-Sadowski M., Wprowadzenie do filozofii prawa, Zakamycze, Kraków 2000.
