Thinker · TH-0107
Cicero
Marcus Tullius Cicero was a Roman orator, lawyer and statesman who, chiefly in his last years, wrote dialogues presenting Greek philosophy in Latin. Broadly…
Also known as Marcus Tullius Cicero, Tully
106 – 43 BCE · Arpinum; Rome; Athens; Rhodes
Traditions: Greek & Roman
Schools: Skepticism (Pyrrhonian & Academic)
Marcus Tullius Cicero was a Roman orator, lawyer and statesman who, chiefly in his last years, wrote dialogues presenting Greek philosophy in Latin. Broadly sympathetic to the skeptical Academy, he set out Stoic, Epicurean and Academic positions against one another. In On the Nature of the Gods the Stoic speaker gives an early statement of the argument from design, and his works transmitted much of Hellenistic philosophy to later Europe.
Key ideas
- The order of nature, like the workings of a sundial or water clock, is presented by his Stoic speaker as evidence of a governing intelligence.
- Philosophy should test competing views and adopt what is most persuasive.
- Moral duty and true expediency never ultimately conflict.
- A just commonwealth rests on law, shared interest and a mixed constitution.
Major works
- De re publica (c. 54–51 BCE)
- De natura deorum (On the Nature of the Gods, 45 BCE)
- Tusculan Disputations (45 BCE)
- De officiis (On Duties, 44 BCE)
In the conversation
- Question How much of just war theory is really in Augustine?
- Discussion Orí and the Stoic cylinder: does a destiny you chose make you more free or less?
- Question Preferred indifferents: a real distinction, or having your health and despising it too?
- Debate Hume’s Dialogues had answered the watchmaker before Paley set it ticking