Epictetus, Discourses | Stoic Cosmopolitanism | Philosophy Core Concepts

This is a video in my new Core Concepts series -- designed to provide students and lifelong learners a brief discussion focused on one main concept from a classic philosophical text and thinker.

This video focuses on a key idea in Epictetus' Discourses, specifically on his discussions of the conception of Cosmopolitanism, that is, being a citizen of the world or the universe.

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[tranquil]

Being proud (or being ashamed), I believe, should be reserved for what one has achieved, for better or worse, by one's own efforts, rather than by an accident of birth. Being proud of being an American or of being tall, for example, would unjustified in this light. But being proud of oneself for having done one's citizenship duties, or of making the effort to be healthy and fit, would make sense. As far as being proud or ashamed of one's country (or city, etc.), perhaps that is better expressed as "having pride for (or shame for)" the particular successes and failures of the society and polity, rather than the mere geographic/demographic unit itself.

[MrMarktrumble]

initially it makes ones action seem rather small, but then seems to make them much more important. Consider that one sees the overview ( the highways,  railways, farmland, oilfields, subdivisions,  industry, warehouses, urban centres, banks,   etc..( the natural world is included, we eat what is produced on farms, and that produce relies on sun and rain, ultimately the sun)) and then imagine the pattern of life of the inhabitants ( get up at 5, get in the car to commute etc.)As no nation state is isolated ( in an attempt to keep ISIS from founding a stable state countries have flooded the market with oil to drive the price down as to take economic power away from ISIS, which results in Alberta's oil being less valuable, which results in the CDN dollar being less valued ( as less countries need to purchase CDN dollars to buy oil from CDNs etc.)). One gets a grand view, that is not just contemporary, but also has a history. Filling in the massive gaps of ones understanding is necessary, but getting a vague  sense of the whole seems possible. But this whole is the total actions of each of the parts.  I am involved when I use the net, drive a highway, buy groceries. My actions ( and inactions) are part of the happenings. In connecting all the moving dots one could see a vast rudderless ship. Except that I am part of it, and I am not rudderless. While I do not steer the whole, insofar as I steer myself I am one organ that is self determining. I direct myself to work, physical education and philosophy, I may be a lucky little calm pool in a torrent with my (seemingly) own private sun, but torrents break borders all the time. If I steer myself well I support and am supported by a cosmos that both gives and takes at exactly the same time.