Immigration, borders, and the thorny issue of cosmopolitanism

Do as Socrates did, never replying to the question of where he was from with, ‘I am Athenian,’ or ‘I am from Corinth,’ but always, ‘I am a citizen of the world.’ (Epictetus, Discourses I, 9.1)

The Stoics were among the first advocates of cosmopolitanism, the notion that all human beings are members of one large family, the cosmopolis, and that we should act accordingly. Which means that we should treat every human being, regardless of kinship, friendship, or shared citizenship, with fairness and justice. Ultimately, according to Zeno of Citium’s Republic, his utopia about the ideal Stoic society, we would live in an anarchy of sages, where there will be no need for laws, borders, and so forth, because we would all reason our way out of our disagreements, if indeed we actually had any.

I don’t think we will seen Zeno’s anarchic utopia realized any time soon, if ever. But I do think that cosmopolitanism is an ethical standard attainable right here, right now, as difficult as it may seem given the recent tide of populism and nationalism that has swept western countries, and the utter lack of anything like that ideal in many other places in the world.