Ἡ βαθειὰ ἀνθρωποκεντρικότητα τῆς λαϊκῆς εὐκοσμίας καὶ ἡ ἐλευθερία ὡς κάθαρση

By Michail Theodosiadis

This article discusses Martin Luther King Jr’s life and philosophy, which have enabled him to lead a successful campaign of civil disobedience against the hubris of racism, widely embraced by sections of the Southern American white populace. King’s exposure to the religious tradition of the black church converted his suffering into an opportunity for introspection, through which he acquired the psychical enlightenment to inspire and motivate large numbers of black and white southerners to mobilize for racial justice. This process of introspection connects us with ‘the impersonal realm’, according to Simone Weil, which stimulates selfpurification, the process whereby biases, resentments and selfish pursuits (which legitimase despotic exploitation and deprivation of political, collective and individual freedom) are effectively removed from the ‘I’. Self-purification is associated with popular eucosmia, the unconditional faith in the ‘common people’, in the individual worth of each human being, who can acquire the capacity to exercise judgment over hubris as a free human being. In other words, this article discusses King’s emphasis on love (or agape), his deep endorsement of popular eucosmia (in my terms), which derives from his Christian philosophical endeavors, in relation to the philosophy of Niketas Stethatos and Maximus the Confessor. Elements of popular eucosmia can be also identified in ancient Greek poetry and drama. Moreover, popular eucosmia incites dramatization, which inspires collective self-purification. Through this process the primary causes of hubris, freedom, the primary causes of racial injustices (in King’s case), are brought to the surface of social becoming.