La part du propre (oikeion) dans la constitution du concept stoïcien d’appropriation (oikeiosis)

Abstract

The oikeiosis concept plays a key part in Stoic ethics. Its polemical use in the controversy between Stoics and Epicureans concerning the natural end of human life (telos) as well as the way it accounts for moral and social development are well known and thoroughly studied. The concept raises number of difficulties regarding its philosophical consistency but its status is also open to much discussion: is it invented by the Stoics or is there also a Peripatetic notion of oikeiosis that would parallel or announce the Stoic one? After reviewing what makes the origins of the concept hard to establish, I will turn to the way the notion of oikeion (one’s own) is elaborated in Plato’s and Aristotle’s texts, in order to investigate whether some of its features might be relevant for the understanding of oikeiosis. I will also examine the kind of difficulties we face when discussing these two notions of unequal philosophical weight.

Keywords

• appropriation (oikeiosis)
• Aristotle
• one’s own (oikeion)
• Plato
• Stoics
• oikeiosis