Oikeiosis

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Oikeiosis ( οἰκείωσις ) from Greek oikeioun (to make one's own), dt. For example "appropriation" or instinct for self-preservation, is a basic concept of the philosophy of the ancient philosophy school of the Stoa .

Oikeiosis is commonly understood as a “process by which a living being gradually becomes aware of itself and thereby becomes familiar and at one with itself”. "The relation of the inclined being directed towards one's own being is not constituted by one's own purpose or choice - it precedes all experience and every decision - but is established by the creative universal nature". The doctrine of oikeiosis serves to justify stoic ethics. For the Stoa, virtue means living with right reason in accordance with one's own and universal nature. Through a "life of this kind, through which people ... fulfill and complete their species-specific nature ... (they can) make the greatest contribution among all beings in the cosmos to the best self-preservation and self-creation of cosmic nature".

The most important sources of the oikeiosis concept include the writings of Cicero (especially De finibus bonorum et malorum ), Diogenes Laertius 'and Hierocles' . With the beginning of the modern era, the term met with increased interest in the context of the re-reception of the Stoa (e.g. in the context of emerging concepts of “self-preservation”).

interpretation

A few years ago the doctrine of oikeiosis was re-examined from the perspective of sociobiology by Robert Bees. In his Tübingen habilitation thesis from 2001, Bees tried to prove that the present interpretations of the oikeiosis are based on a translation error: Since the verb oikeiousthai is not a medial but a passive form, the human being does not act as a subject (by appropriating something to himself), but nature, which for the Stoics is a divine living being endowed with reason. In this respect, humans are 'appropriated' by nature to certain objects, themselves, their descendants and their fellow human beings: “Oikeiosis is an innate mechanism that causes an (instinctive) turn to something that is by definition 'own', i.e. appropriate to nature is, in the sense that the act triggered benefits the preservation of the individual and the species. Stoic oikeiosis describes a genetic programming [...] of behavior that gives instructions to love oneself, one's offspring and one's fellow human beings (resulting in the respective striving for their preservation). A distinction must be made between three forms of oikeiosis, which can be divided into egoism and altruism according to their reference points ”(p. 258). Bees comes to the conclusion: “Oikeiosis does not describe a process of self-knowledge, it does not describe a moral act, although it is a prerequisite for attaining the telos. It stands for a genetic programming of behavior, the triggering of instincts due to a prenatal disposition, which the divine all-nature has created in humans as in all living beings. In clear agreement with the model of modern sociobiology, three forms of oikeiosis encompass the structure of effects in which the survival of the individual and society is guaranteed ”(p. 338). The goal, according to Bees, is the self-preservation of the cosmos, which for the Stoics is a god who survives through the survival of his creatures (cf. bsd. Pp. 166ff., 172, 237).

Even before its publication (2004), the thesis of Bees' work was opposed to the thesis of Chang-Uh Lee (2002) that oikeiosis was both transitive and intransitive, i.e. both in the sense of an alignment of living beings through all-nature with the goal the self-preservation and self-development of the cosmos as well as in the sense of an orientation of the human being towards (step-by-step) self-appropriation with the goal of self-preservation and self-development of his reason. Seen in this way, both all-nature and man are the subject of oikeiosis. The different interpretations have fundamental consequences for the understanding of Stoic ethics. While “for the entire stoic ethics” according to Bees: “What the reason of the adult has to achieve is to give the natural instinct its approval” (p. 14), in the view of the Stoa according to Lee and Forschner the human being is more perfect Oikeiosis is a sensible and self-sufficient "designer of his instincts".

Bees' thesis has so far represented a special opinion in the context of Stoic research.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ M. Forschner 1993, 51.
  2. ↑ Maximilian Forschner 1981, 1995.
  3. ↑ Chang-Uh Lee, 2002, p. 39.
  4. ^ Diogenes Laertius VII, 86.

Web links

Stoicorum Veterum Fragmenta III, ed. Arnim; Fragments 178 - 196 (source collection)

literature

  • Maximilian Forschner , Oikeiosis. The stoic theory of self-appropriation, in: Stoicism in European Philosophy, Literature, Art and Politics (edited by B. Neumeyr et al.), Berlin-New York 2008, Vol. 1, pp. 169–192.
  • Christoph Horn : appropriation (oikeiosis). In: Historical Dictionary of Philosophy 12 (2004), Sp. 1403-1408.
  • Robert Bees: The oikeiosis doctrine of the Stoa. I. Reconstruction of their content (Epistemata. Würzburger Wissenschaftliche Schriften. Series philosophy, vol. 258), Würzburg 2004 (habilitation thesis Tübingen 2001).
  • Maximilian Forschner, On Human Happiness, Darmstadt 1993.
  • Chang-Uh Lee, Oikeiosis. Stoic ethics in a natural-philosophical perspective, Alber series Thesen Vol. 21, Freiburg / Munich 2002 (Dissertation Erlangen / Nürnberg 1999).
  • Maximilian Forschner, The stoic ethics. About the connection between natural, language and moral philosophy in the Altstoic system, Stuttgart 1981, Darmstadt 1995².