All human beings are equal 

In Stoicism a slave is no less human than a freeperson, a woman is not inferior to a man, and there are no intrinsic differences in the humanity of members born to different tribes, nations or tongues, or those who are educated and those who are not. 

All humans have the capacity for virtue and can use reason to lead a fulfilled life. This is manifested through their virtuous thoughts and actions towards themselves and others. This understanding led to the conviction that all human beings belong to and participate in a cosmopolitan society. This is graphically illustrated by the Stoic Hierocles through a set of “circles of concern”, which began with the self and expanded outwards to family, friends and wider society. We should bring each circle of concern inward to reflect the healthy aspects of humanity. This provides the foundation for a society built on harmony while also accepting that humans naturally feel a more direct connection or a sense of responsibility towards some people than they do with others. 

Stoic concern is not self-centered 

Many modern Stoics have consistently made the case that the present environmental crisis represents the biggest threat to humanity’s ability to flourish. After all, how can Stoics hope to strive towards eudaimonia if polluted air means we cannot breathe? How can we expect to use our reasoning faculties if we have no clean water to drink? How can we uphold the virtue of justice if our desire to burn fossil fuels to maintain our SUV or meat-heavy diet means that the poorest people among us (and the least responsible for climate breakdown) lose their homes and ability to grow crops due to preventable sea level rises? This concern for Earth and its natural processes led us to draw an additional circle of concern to encompass the “environment”. 

By integrating this circle into your daily practice, you acknowledge your connection to the living Earth, as the environment that necessarily sustains and supports all preceding circles. You provide yourself with the conceptual basis to tackle the environmental crisis and in doing so you align your thoughts with the ancient Stoic understanding that happiness is attained by living according to Nature. 

Stoic concern is based on justice 

Seeking unity with natural processes and extending our care towards animals, plants and their habitats helps us to re-evaluate our priorities. Our concern for justice extends to those human beings and other living creatures who cannot defend their communities and way of life against the Western world’s encroachment. It can help us reconsider the role of consumerism’s perceived link to happiness, if that “happiness” causes us to destroy pristine rainforest only to construct expansive landfill sites once we are sufficiently bored with what we were told would make us happy. Thinking on a planetary level can also cause us to make wiser decisions about how we view and reconcile those attitudes and actions that have resulted in climate breakdown or widespread plastic pollution. 

Towards collective wellbeing 

Finally, and as argued by Chris Gill at this year’s Stoicon in Athens, extending the circles of concern to include the environment explicitly highlights the moral obligation we have to use our capacity on behalf of the plants, animals, and the planet generally, to ensure our collective wellbeing (theirs and ours). This is even more necessary given that humankind has—through intensive fossil fuel extraction and mass deforestation, amongst other things—negated, or sufficiently reduced, Nature’s ability to offer providential care and support our ability to flourish. 

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Kai Whiting is a researcher and lecturer in sustainability and Stoicism based at the University of Lisbon, Portugal. He Tweets @kai-whiting and blogs over at StoicKai.com

 

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