Naturalismo e cosmopolitismo nell’Antichità

Abstract

Cosmopolitanism in Antiquity is especially promoted by the cynics and by the stoics. The Epicurean Garden seems to adopt a very different view, according to which justice and laws depend on what is useful for a given political community at a given time. However, the epicurean Diogenes of Oinoanda (fr. 30 Smith) endorses a sort of cosmopolitanism, which contrasts, at first sight, with the traditional contractualism of his school. Nevertheless, in this paper it is argued that Diogenes’ cosmopolitanism could hardly be seen as a concession to other schools and that it is consistent with the main principles of Epicurus’ political doctrine.