A Stoic named Hierocles famously illustrated this as a series of concentric circles. Each individual, he said, was born at the center of these circles, primarily concerned with ourself. With time, we expand our circles of concern or compassion to the people we love, the people who live around us, the people like us. But beyond these inner rings lies a larger world, composed of our fellow human beings spread out across the world, the environment, animals, even future generations we will never meet. The work of philosophy, he said, of justice, was the process of pulling these outer rings closer
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