Circles of belonging. A contribution to the history of cosmopolitics

DOROTA DRAŁUS

Instytut Politologii, Uniwersytet Wrocławski, ul. Koszarowa 3, 51-149 Wrocław
http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6029-9230

Abstract

Within contemporary cosmopolitanism one may distinguish two main currents which aim at divergent theoretical aims. One of them may be interpreted as an intellectual conceptualization of the consequences of the economic globalization, characteristic of the late capitalism, while the other is an attempt to overcome conflicts resulting from the resistance to the global uniformization of the variety of social life. The divergent nature of these two aims is responsible for the essential tensions in contemporary cosmopolitan doctrines. In this article, which is a re-reading of selected moments in the history of ancient cosmopolitanism, I stress the internal tensions within various versions of cosmopolitanism which informed the development of this doctrine in the ancient times. My aim is to demonstrate how moral and political radicalism of the Cynic naturalist cosmopolitanism has been superseded, in the late Stoicism, by a moderate gradualist version, formulated by Hierokles on the basis of his idea

Keywords:

cosmopolitanism, naturalism, cynicism, Stoicism, Hierokles, oikeiosis