INDIVIDUALISM AND COSMOPOLITANISM IN THE IMPERIAL STOA

For the Stoics man is a social being who can be perfected only within the society of other human beings. Individual morality is ipso facto social morality since man cannot be thought of outside the context of the broader human community. Thus the Stoic terminology helps to extend the Greek philosophical vocabulary by innovatively adding the term “cosmopolis” beside the previous term of “polis”. Cosmopolitanism partially stands on the prior idea that the noetic faults or sins that characterize the human being are not only tainted as individual disorders but also as social mishaps for the reason that they are shared by all people. Moreover, these noetic faults, i.e. passions, tend to be multiplied and proliferated through the dynamics which are developed within a society. Thus the “vulgus”, the crowd, is a real catalyst of negative influence for the individual who wishes to acquire wisdom and eudaimonia. This fact creates a significant predicament in the equable coexistence of people. The gnomon for a resolution to this problematic issue is based on the therapy of passions. In the Stoic theory the therapy of passions is one of the most prominent subjects, and while Stoic interpretations may differ in particular details, all the thinkers of the Stoa conclude that passions are to blame for the miseries of the human life. Particularly, the Stoics of Rome define fighting against passions not as insensibility (apatheia) but as an energetic logical procedure that leads to the extinction of false thinking. In order to be able to live harmoniously with the “other”, man has to correct himself and render himself better. Thus, the elementary goal for a perfect society takes the form of individual perfection. The brotherhood of men is grounded on the indubitable Stoic axiom that the human soul is the source of every good; actually of the unique good, which is virtue. The distinctive parameter for creating a community is the sole good (summum bonum), virtue, which is an objective for everyone but also an inherent and ecumenical capacity. Virtue facilitates a profound understanding of life and other people. Through Logos the asymmetric relationship between man and his fellow man can be finally amended