Humani generis societas: reflections on the cosmopolitan ideal and its stoic roots

Abstract

In recent decades there has been a proliferation of proposals that seek to recapture the spirit of the Enlightenment cosmopolitan ideal. Some of them see a direct antecedent in ancient cosmopolitanism, mainly of a Stoic nature. The article analyses the different versions of the cosmopolitan ideal in antiquity, starting with the proposal made by Zeno of Citium in his Politeia. There are three authors in whom Stoic terminology channels political aspirations of a universal scope: Cicero, Dion of Prusa and Marcus Aurelius. Through these authors we can observe two very different functions of the concept in antiquity: from the theological-political point of view, the cosmopolis, understood as an ideal city made up of gods and men, is a consequence of the affirmation of a providential logos and of the rational constitution of the world; applied to a concrete human community, it offers a foundation for the imperial domination of Rome over the known world. Two functions that are alien and even contrary to the enlightened cosmopolitan ideal. Keywords: cosmopolitanism, stoicism