Oikeion Agathon. Plato's Theory of Belonging

• Applicant: Dr. Hermann Crüwell
• Subject Area: History of Philosophy
• Term: since 2025
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 564880310

In this project, I want to produce three articles which for the first time systematically explore Plato's conception of what belongs (is oikeion). The qualification that something properly belongs to an entity and is therefore appropriate, desirable, and good for it pervades numerous discussions in Plato's work. The concept of the oikeion plays a key role here. But does its use in the various discussions indicate an underlying theory? My hypothesis is that the core of such a theory can indeed be reconstructed. Especially in article 1, I will take as my guiding idea the insight that for Plato, the fundamental determinant of belonging (oikeiotēs) is ontological: the nature of an entity determines which activity, disposition and which objects properly belong to it and which other entities it properly belongs with. In articles 2 and 3, I want to work out how Plato's reflections on our true nature lead to a revisionary understanding of our true goods and affairs (oikeia) and our human kin (oikeioi). The project closes a gap in the research, as to date there have been studies of individual discussions, but no fundamental investigation of Plato's conception of the oikeion. Only such an investigation, however, can really make the underlying concept of the oikeion comprehensible and thus also contribute to a proper understanding of the individual discussions. But what makes the concept of the oikeion so special and sets it apart from other concepts such as idion, sungenes, or phusis, which also function as links between positive descriptions of entities and normative conclusions about them? As I try to show in the project outline, Plato (and, following him, the Stoics) often chooses this term in particular because it combines 1) a high degree of generality (for example, including other subjects) with 2) an intuitive justification for normativity. The fact that Plato repeatedly uses the concept of the oikeion in key discussions indicates that to him it does something that sets it apart from other related concepts and makes it special. In the history of philosophy, the concept of the oikeion is known as a key concept of Stoic ethics. My project can put the discussion in the history of ideas on a new footing, since references to Plato have so far at best been worked out for partial areas. In addition, a fundamental investigation of Plato's concept of the oikeion could contribute an interesting systematic perspective both to contemporary discussions of the ethics of partiality and to the discourse on human beings’ original appropriation of the world, which has also recently developed renewed interest in the notion of oikeiōsis.

• DFG Programme: WBP Position