οἰκείωσις and 'la sociabilité naturelle des hommes'
T he term, οἰκείωσις [oikeiosis], is a core concept of Stoic ethics. It is also a foundation of Grotius's natural law theory. Some of my current writing is now focused on revisiting this concept. Let me try to work out my understanding of οἰκείωσις. Why is it important for Grotius's theory of natural law? Very simply: For Grotius, natural law derives from this thing the Stoics called οἰκείωσις. Grotius, De Jure Belli ac Pacis (Amsterdam, 1720): p. v [Proleg. §6] But this is a notoriously difficult term to translate. Barbeyrac, in his French translation, understood the difficulty and rendered this passage as follows: Grotius, Le Droit de la Guerre , ed. Barbeyrac (Amsterdam, 1729) p. 7 Barbeyrac was careful in handling this passage. He characterizes οἰκείωσις as 'a word derived from the feelings that family members have for one another.' And this is a pretty good explanation of the Stoic term, as it captures how much the concep...
