Kosmopolites — World-Citizenship
This week you are going to learn about kosmopolites (pronounced koz-mo-POL-ih-tez), a Greek word meaning "citizen of the world." The Stoics used it to describe a person who recognizes that their deepest allegiance is not only to their family, city, or nation, but to the whole of humanity. That does not mean you stop caring for the people nearest to you; it means you understand that your circle of genuine concern does not stop at any border, and that understanding changes how you treat every person you meet.
Passage
The consideration of the duties pertaining to [our other] kindred is consequent to the discussion of those that pertain to parents, brothers, wives, and children; for the same things may, in a certain respect, be said of the former as of the latter; and on this account may be concisely explained. For, in short, each of us is, as it were, circumscribed by many circles; some of which are less, but others larger, and some comprehend, but others are comprehended, according to the different and unequal habitudes with respect to each other. For the first, indeed, and most proximate circle is that which every one describes about his own mind as a centre, in which circle the body, and whatever is assumed for the sake of the body, are comprehended. For this is nearly the smallest circle, and almost touches the centre itself. The second from this, and which is at a greater distance from the centre, but comprehends the first circle, is that in which parents, brothers, wife, and children are arranged. The third circle from the centre is that which contains uncles and aunts, grandfathers and grandmothers, and the children of brothers and sisters. After this is the circle which comprehends the remaining relatives. Next to this is that which contains the common people, then that which comprehends those of the same tribe, afterwards that which contains the citizens; and then two other circles follow, one being the circle of those that dwell in the vicinity of the city, and the other, of those of the same province. But the outermost and greatest circle, and which comprehends all the other circles, is that of the whole human race .
— Hierocles, Ethical Fragments 5.1
Reflection
The Stoic philosopher Hierocles gave us one of the most useful images for understanding kosmopolites: concentric circles. You are at the center. The next ring holds your family, then your extended kin, then neighbors, fellow citizens, and finally the outermost ring, all of humanity. The task of the world-citizen, Hierocles says, is to keep drawing those outer circles inward, to treat people who are far from the center with something closer to the warmth you naturally feel for those who are near. This is not a demand to love strangers as intensely as you love your children. It is a practice of gradually reducing the coldness with which you regard those who are different or distant from you.
Go deeper
Pick one specific group of people who currently sit in a distant ring for you; what is one concrete thing you could do this week to pull that ring a little closer to the center?
Practice
Draw Your Circles
On a piece of paper, draw Hierocles's circles from memory: yourself at the center, then family, kin, community, city, and humanity. Write the name of one real person in each ring. Then, next to the outermost ring, write a single word describing how you normally feel toward people at that distance. Keep the paper somewhere visible today.