Drawing the circles inward

The Stoic Hierocles pictured each person at the center of a series of circles: oneself, family, close ones, fellow citizens, all of humanity. Wisdom, he said, lies in drawing these circles inward, in gradually treating the more distant as if they were nearer. This habit puts that graded appropriation into practice: everyone counts at the foundation, but care unfolds in circles, with the task of bringing them closer. Today it helps hold together the equal worth of each and the concrete priority owed to one's own.