Stoicism: Ariadne's Thread Through International Relations
The subject of modern international relations, which is quite broad, is approached from many different perspectives. Arguably, this makes it imperative to understand the history of the subject in order to understand the present. In The Philosophy of International Relations, F. Parkinson introduces his first chapter by claiming that the remainder of it will be devoted to the evolutionary trends of thought in international relations; however, he ignored all other trends and only focused on one specific ideology: Stoicism. This ideology, which was conceived by the ancient Greeks out of a need to define their values, was integral in developing the Western world's general perspective of international relations. It appears that Stoicism is the key evolutionary trend that Parkinson quite vaguely alludes to in his introduction. Stoicism, as an ideology, not only incited evolutionary trends in international relations; it also underwent many evolutions itself. Once the author approaches the topic of Christian Stoicism, it appears to the undiscerning eye that the thesis has abruptly switched from the evolution of Stoicism to the evolution of Christianity. Upon closer inspection, however, it becomes clearer that when embraced by t
The endurance of Stoicism must not only be attributed to its ability to help a civilization maintain power; its attractiveness to downtrodden peoples in times of collapse also contributed to Stoicism's survival. As Parkinson illustrates in his account of the subsequent collapses of Greek and Roman civilizations, the civilizations suffered from internal decline due to a combination of economic failure and social decay. This caused a deep sense of societal despair among the lower classes, and a strong sense of injustice. Stoicism's principles of universality and equality offered a sense of hope that justice might be served. Parkinson, with diminishing effectiveness and increasing confusion, shows how Stoicism not only faced many evolutions, but how it transformed from a philosophy into a religion, and then diminished its presence within the religion. Proceeding from the Crusades to the end of the chapter, the historical account switches focus from Stoicism to periods in Christian history where Stoicism is decreasingly present. For example, in the Conquista, the Spanish demonstrated a high degree of hypocrisy when forcing conversion on non-Christians and ignoring the principle of equality in their religion. The only conclusion that one can draw from Parkinson's writing here is that he is
Some common words found in the essay are:
Conquista Spanish, Plato Ariadne's, Relations Parkinson, Roman Empire, Greek Roman, St Augustine, Christian Stoicism, , Proceeding Crusades, Christianity Stoicism, international relations, st augustine, evolutionary trends international, trends international relations, historical account, advanced reader, evolution stoicism, universality equality, trends international, stoicism ideology, stoic ideals diminished, philosophy international relations, philosophical structure, stoicism transition,
Approximate Word count = 877
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
|
