Autarchia
Self-sufficiency — the condition of needing nothing beyond oneself, whether applied to individuals, cities, or the ideal philosophical life.
The Meaning of Autarchia
Autarchia (also autarkeia) was a political and ethical ideal that ran through Greek thought from the city-state model to Stoic personal philosophy. For Aristotle, the polis existed to make autarkeia possible: a city that could not feed and defend itself was not truly a city. For the Cynics, autarchia was a personal achievement: Diogenes of Sinope, living in a jar, ostentatiously demonstrated his lack of need for the things society valued. For the Stoics, the sage was autarkēs — self-sufficient — because his happiness depended entirely on his own virtue and judgment, not on external goods that fortune could remove. The concept was politically charged: city-states sought agricultural and military self-sufficiency; thinkers debated whether trade (which created dependency) was compatible with true autarkeia. The ideal of the self-sufficient philosopher — needing nothing from tyrants or crowds — was a recurring image of philosophical freedom and dignity.
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Fun Fact
Aristotle's definition of the polis centers on autarkeia: a community that reaches the level of self-sufficiency has achieved the purpose for which communities exist.
Words We Inherited
English words and phrases that trace back to this myth. See our full guide to English words from Greek mythology.
Explore Further
Autarkeia
💭 conceptIndependence from external goods
The philosophical ideal of needing nothing beyond yourself — the self-sufficiency that makes a person immune to fortune.
Eleutheria
💭 conceptpolitics, philosophy
Freedom — the condition of not being enslaved, and more broadly the political and philosophical ideal of self-determination.
Homonoia
💭 conceptpolitics, philosophy
Concord or like-mindedness — the civic ideal of citizens sharing common purposes and values, the condition necessary for a functioning community.
Eleutheria
💭 conceptPolitical and personal freedom
The Greek ideal of freedom — both the political liberty of the citizen and the inner freedom of the wise person.
Eutopia
💭 conceptphilosophy, politics
The good place — the ideal well-ordered community imagined in Greek political philosophy as a model against which real cities could be measured.
Apatheia
💭 conceptStoic Philosophy
The Stoic ideal of freedom from destructive passions, achieved through rational discipline.
Republic
💭 conceptLiterature
Plato's philosophical dialogue exploring justice, the ideal state, and the nature of the soul
Philosophy
💭 conceptLanguage and thought
An English word for the study of fundamental questions about existence, knowledge, and ethics, derived from the Greek philosophia meaning love of wisdom
Democracy
💭 conceptPolitical science and Athens
A system of government in which power is held by the people, invented in Athens around 508 BCE and derived from the Greek demos (people) and kratos (power or rule)
Plutocracy
💭 conceptPolitical science and language
A form of government in which the wealthy hold power, derived from Ploutos, the Greek god of wealth, combined with kratos, meaning rule or power
Aporia
💭 conceptThe productive state of philosophical puzzlement
The state of intellectual impasse that Socrates deliberately induced — the recognition that you do not know what you thought you knew.
Enantiodromia
💭 conceptphilosophy
The tendency of extremes to reverse into their opposites — the principle that things carried to their limit swing back toward what they denied.