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Ancient Greek and Roman Philosophy > Hellenistic and Later Ancient Philosophy > Academic Skeptics > Cicero
Cicero
Edited by Sean McConnell (University of Otago)
About this topic
| Summary | Marcus Tullius Cicero (106–43 BCE) was a Roman statesman, orator, and philosopher. As well as speeches, letters, and rhetorical treatises, Cicero wrote numerous philosophical works. There are two schools of thought on the novelty and value of Cicero’s philosophical works: (1) he is essentially just repackaging Greek material in Latin, offering renditions of existing ideas that are invaluable for saving much of the lost tradition of Hellenistic philosophy; (2) he is doing something more than that, developing distinctive philosophical contributions of his own. Most recent studies stress the innovative elements of Cicero’s philosophical thinking. Cicero's philosophical writings have been very influential in the history and development of European intellectual traditions. |
| Introductions | Woolf 2014 and Woolf 2022 are excellent and accessible introductions to Cicero’s philosophical thought for the general reader. MacKendrick 1989 offers useful plot summaries of each work. Atkins & Bénatouïl 2021 provides a comprehensive survey of all major areas of Cicero's philosophical thought and practice. Schofield 2021 offers a detailed account of Cicero's political philosophy in particular. |
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- Cicero's Philosophy of Just War.Thornton Lockwood - manuscriptCicero’s ethical and political writings present a detailed and sophisticated philosophy of just war, namely an account of when armed conflict is morally right or wrong. Several of the philosophical moves or arguments that he makes, such as a critique of “Roman realism” or his incorporation of the ius fetiale—a form of archaic international law—are remarkable similar to those of the contemporary just war philosopher Michael Walzer, even if Walzer is describing inter-state war and Cicero is describing imperial war. But (...)
- The Partial Coherence of Cicero’s De officiis.Thornton Lockwood - manuscriptMartha Nussbaum has provided a sustained critique of Cicero’s De officiis (or On Duties), concerning what she claims is Cicero’s incoherent distinction between duties of justice, which are strict, cosmopolitan, and impartial, and duties of material aid, which are elastic, weighted towards those who are near and dear, and partial. No doubt, from Nussbaum’s cosmopolitan perspective, Cicero’s distinction between justice and beneficence seems problematic and lies at the root of modern moral failures to conceptualize adequately our obligations in situations of (...)
- Cicero's demarcation of science: A report of shared criteria.Damian Fernandez Beanato - forthcoming - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A.
- Cicero’s Academici Libri and Lucullus: A Commentary with Introduction and Translations. By Tobias Reinhardt.Scott F. Aikin - 2023 - Ancient Philosophy 43 (2):570-574.
- POETIC QUOTATIONS IN CICERO - (H.) Čulík-Baird Cicero and the Early Latin Poets. Pp. xiv + 306. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2022. Cased, £75, US$99.99. ISBN: 978-1-316-51608-9. [REVIEW]David Butterfield - 2023 - The Classical Review 73 (2):508-510.
- Cicero and Wang Chong and their Critique of Divination.Mark Kevin Cabural - 2023 - Philosophia: International Journal of Philosophy (Philippine e-journal) 24 (1).
- Cicero and Wang Chong and their Critique of Divination.Mark Kevin S. Cabural - 2023 - Philosophia: International Journal of Philosophy (Philippine e-journal) 24 (1):1-18.This article aims to present Cicero and Wang Chong as theorists of divination. While it has already been determined that they advanced both defenses and criticisms, I specifically intend to focus on their significant criticisms of divination, which emerged as corrective for the practice by supporting or disapproving and extending or limiting its underlying principles. I also emphasize that these thinkers have different objectives and emphases in their criticisms. Cicero’s objective is to maintain the fundamental teachings of their forefathers, prompting (...)
- CICERO'S DE NATURA DEORUM_ REVISITED - (C.) Diez, (C.) Schubert (edd.) Zwischen Skepsis und Staatskult. Neue Perspektiven auf Ciceros _De natura deorum. (Palingenesia 134.) Pp. 277, figs. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner, 2022. Cased, €60. ISBN: 978-3-515-13326-5. [REVIEW]María Emilia Cairo - 2023 - The Classical Review 73 (2):506-508.
- Boni Gone Bad: Cicero’s Critique of Epicureanism in De Finibus 1 and 2.Michelle T. Clarke - 2023 - Polis 40 (1):25-43.This paper argues that Cicero’s critique of Epicureanism in De finibus is motivated by a concern about its degrading effect on the moral sensibility of Rome’s best men. In place of earlier objections to Epicureanism, which centered on its inability to explain or recommend the virtuous conduct of Roman maiores, De finibus focuses on its inability to do so properly and, more prospectively, to assist boni in the work of maintaining the dignity and respectability of Roman civic life. Responding to (...)
- Republicanism in Desperate Times: Cicero’s Critique of Cato’s Stoicism.Mark E. Yellin - 2023 - Polis 40 (1):61-74.This essay examines two articles by Rex Stem about Cicero and Cato: ‘The First Eloquent Stoic and Cato the Younger’ and ‘Cicero as Orator and Political Philosopher: The Value of the Pro Murena for Ciceronian Political Thought’. It places these articles in dialogue and draws upon them to present an overarching argument about Cicero’s critique of Cato’s Stoicism. It also assesses their respective defenses of Roman republicanism, offering counterarguments to Cicero’s critique of Cato and underlining the ways in which the (...)
- CICERO, NATURAL LAW AND REPUBLICANISM - (M.C.) Hawley Natural Law Republicanism. Cicero's Liberal Legacy. Pp. xii + 252, fig. New York: Oxford University Press, 2022. Cased, £47.99, US$74. ISBN: 978-0-19-758233-6. [REVIEW]Elena Irrera - 2023 - The Classical Review 73 (1):128-130.
- Cicero and the Problem of Triage: Why There Is No Moral Algorithm in Distributing Scarce Resources.Bernhard Koch - 2023 - In Sheena M. Eagan & Daniel Messelken (eds.), Resource Scarcity in Austere Environments: An Ethical Examination of Triage and Medical Rules of Eligibility. Springer Verlag. pp. 173-188.This chapter recalls an ancient model of applied ethics that distinguishes between four different moral roles and can thereby help clarify the structure of the institutional setup, as well as individual action under conditions of resource scarcity. Even if material questions remain open, there is an independent gain in the structural analysis, from which especially the importance of judgment (phronesis) emerges strengthened. In this sense, it also represents a defense of the practice of ethical reflection through case discussions.
- CICERO'S PERSONALITIES AS AN ORATOR - (J.) Kenty Cicero's Political Personae. Pp. x + 274, fig. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020. Cased, £75, US$99.99 (Paper, £24.99, US$32.99). ISBN: 978-1-108-83946-4 (978-1-108-81319-8 pbk). [REVIEW]Isabel K. Köster - 2023 - The Classical Review 73 (2):502-504.
- CICERO'S PHILOSOPHY - (J.W.) Atkins, (T.) Bénatouïl (edd.) The Cambridge Companion to Cicero's Philosophy. Pp. xviii + 335. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2022. Paper, £24.99, US$34.99 (Cased, £74.99, US$99.99). ISBN: 978-1-108-40403-7 (978-1-108-41666-5 hbk). [REVIEW]Giuseppina Magnaldi - 2023 - The Classical Review 73 (1):123-126.
- The problem of Aristippus at Cicero, De officiis 1.148.Sean McConnell - 2023 - Mnemosyne 76:121–135.The manuscripts of De officiis all record something strange at 1.148: Cicero says that the philosophers Socrates and Aristippus had exceptional licence to flout social custom and convention owing to their ‘great and divine good qualities’ (magna et divina bona). There are no worries about Socrates, but the example of Aristippus seems preposterous. This paper makes the following argument: (1) elsewhere Cicero defines divina bona in such a way to exclude hedonists; this should rule out crediting Aristippus with magna et (...)
- Old Men in Cicero's Political Philosophy.Sean McConnell - 2023 - In Power and Persuasion in Cicero's Philosophy. Cambridge University Press. pp. 218-240.In his philosophical works Cicero addresses a number of questions concerning the role of old men in politics, most obviously in his dialogue De senectute of 44 BCE. How best should the old participate in politics and the wider community—what, if anything, do the old have to offer that is special or unique? How should the generations fit together in the body politic, and should age be a factor in the structural organisation of states? Should the old rule? This chapter (...)$86.61 new (collection) View on Amazon.comRemove from this list Direct downloadExport citation
Bookmark - VOLUNTAS IN CICERO - (L.) Paulson Cicero and the People's Will. Philosophy and Power at the End of the Roman Republic. Pp. xvi + 269. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2023. Cased, £75, US$99.99. ISBN: 978-1-316-51411-5. [REVIEW]Elizabeth McKnight - 2023 - The Classical Review 73 (2):504-506.
- Cicero’s Philosophical Leadership, an Academic Consideration.Charlotte C. S. Thomas - 2023 - Polis 40 (1):9-24.In Pro Murena, Cicero argues that Cato’s rigid philosophical comportment to politics reflects a mistaken understanding both of philosophy and of politics. By implication, he suggests that there is an approach to philosophy that is compatible with political leadership. Specifically, he argues that a thoroughgoing commitment to the philosophy of the Platonic Academy (i.e., Academic Philosophy) is entirely compatible with a thoroughgoing commitment to political leadership in the late Roman Republic. This essay looks at the most famous treatment of philosophical (...)
- Tobias Reinhardt, Cicero's Academici Libri and Lucullus: a commentary with introduction and translations. [REVIEW]Michael Vazquez - 2023 - Bryn Mawr Classical Review 11 (21).
- CICERO'S LETTERS IN CONTEXT - (T.) Späth (ed.) Gesellschaft im Brief. Ciceros Korrespondenz und die Sozialgeschichte. (Collegium Beatus Rhenanus 9.) Pp. 430, ill. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner, 2021. Paper, €72. ISBN: 978-3-515-13095-0. [REVIEW]Katharina Volk - 2023 - The Classical Review 73 (1):121-123.
- Schofield, Malcolm,_ _Cicero: Political Philosophy. Oxford / New York:: Oxford University Press 2021, xiv + 285 pp. [REVIEW]Raphael Woolf - 2023 - Archiv für Geschichte der Philosophie 105 (2):349-351.
- CICERO'S PHILOSOPHY AND SCHOLARSHIP - (S.) Maso Cicero's Philosophy. (Trends in Classics – Key Perspectives on Classical Research 3.) Pp. xiv + 178. Berlin and Boston: De Gruyter, 2022. Paper, £22.50, €24.95, US$28.99. ISBN: 978-3-11-065839-2. [REVIEW]Raphael Woolf - 2023 - The Classical Review 73 (1):126-128.
- Cicero, Caesar, and the End of Cicero’s Imperium.Jonathan P. Zarecki - 2023 - Polis 40 (3):493-513.This article argues that Cicero laid down his imperium in Brundisium in September 47 after Caesar had, in a meeting between the two men, granted Cicero permission to retain his imperium and title of imperator for as long as Cicero wished to do so. Instead of accepting Caesar’s offer, Cicero instead immediately repudiated it, laid down his imperium in the city of Brundisium, and went immediately to Tusculum to begin a second period of political retirement. Caesar’s offer and his return (...)
- Brief Lives: Cicero (106-43 BC).Hilarius Bogbinder - 2022 - Philosophy Now 153:44-46.
- Cicero - Academica (Academicus primus, Fragmenta et testimonia academicorum librorum, Lucullus).Marcus Tullius Cicero - 2022 - Oxford: Oxford University Press. Edited by Tobias Reinhardt.This is the first new critical edition of this text since 1908, and the first to appear in the Oxford Classical Texts series. The edition is informed by a comprehensive analysis of the entire tradition of Lucullus and Academicus Primus, and by a thorough rethinking of the text documented in the accompanying commentary volume. Lucullus and Academicus Primus are a key body of evidence for the development of Academic scepticism, one of the two varieties of scepticism in antiquity. The texts (...)
- How to Grieve: An Ancient Guide to the Lost Art of Consolation.Marcus Tullius Cicero - 2022 - Princeton University Press.An engaging new translation of a timeless masterpiece about coping with the death of a loved one In 45 BCE, the Roman statesman Cicero fell to pieces when his beloved daughter, Tullia, died from complications of childbirth. But from the depths of despair, Cicero fought his way back. In an effort to cope with his loss, he wrote a consolation speech—not for others, as had always been done, but for himself. And it worked. Cicero’s Consolation was something new in literature, (...)
- The sphere of Saturn (Cicero, De re publica, 6.17).Álvaro Cancela Cilleruelo - 2022 - Hermes 150 (3):369.This paper argues that at Cicero, De re publica 6.17 the manuscript text unum globum should be kept instead of the conjecture summum globum. This conjecture is unanimously attributed to Fr. Boll (1910), but it was proposed already in 1790 by G. W. Maier. The use of unus in this context, in which the set of harmonic spheres of our cosmos is described, can be explained as an alternative to primus when referring to the first element of a sequence; further (...)
- Cicero's Treatment of Sulla in the Pro Roscio Amerino.Gregory Coates - 2022 - Classical Quarterly 72 (2):595-610.This article addresses the view that Cicero's Pro Roscio Amerino contains ‘criticism’ of Sulla (the ‘anti-Sulla’ thesis). It argues that there is no evidence of criticism, that Cicero had no incentive to criticize Sulla, and that his attack is aimed solely against Chrysogonus. In particular, the article draws attention to the methodological implications of the ‘anti-Sulla’ thesis, arguing that it is unsound to second-guess Cicero's meaning, to project ‘sarcasm’ onto his words, or to suggest post euentum rewrites; these views, it (...)
- Cicero's political philosophy in its republican context - (m.) Schofield cicero. Political philosophy. Pp. XIV + 285. Oxford: Oxford university press, 2021. Paper, £19.99, us$25 (cased, £65, us$85). Isbn: 978-0-19-968492-2 (978-0-19-968491-5 hbk). [REVIEW]René de Nicolay - 2022 - The Classical Review 72 (1):141-143.
- Summa et Perfecta Gloria: Cicero on Ambition, Reputation, and Care for Future Human Beings.Evan Dutmer - 2022 - Ethical Perspectives 29 (1):7-31.
- Power and persuasion in Cicero's philosophy.Nathan Gilbert, Margaret Graver & Sean McConnell (eds.) - 2022 - New York, NY, USA: Cambridge University Press.This interdisciplinary volume will be essential reading for students and scholars working on Greco-Roman philosophy, Roman rhetoric, and the history and literary culture of the Roman Republic. It showcases innovative methodological approaches to Cicero the philosopher and defines new directions for the immediate future of the field.
- Life writing in cicero and Augustus - (l.) diegel life writing zwischen republik und prinzipat. Cicero und Augustus. (Schweizerische beiträge zur altertumswissenschaft 53.) pp. 379. Basel: Schwabe, 2021. Cased, chf68. Isbn: 978-3-7965-4229-9. [REVIEW]Lidewij Van Gils - 2022 - The Classical Review 72 (1):143-145.
- Ciceronian Officium and Kantian Duty.Andree Hahmann & Michael Vazquez - 2022 - Review of Metaphysics 75 (4):667-706.In this paper we examine the genealogy and transmission of moral duty in Western ethics. We begin with an uncontroversial account of the Stoic notion of the kathēkon, and then examine the pivotal moment of Cicero’s translation of it into Latin as ‘officium’. We take a deflationary view of the impact of Cicero’s translation and conclude that his translation does not mark a departure from the Stoic ideal. We find further confirmation of our deflationary position in the development of the (...)
- The Wondrous Journey of Cicero's Head to Sardis: Hellenic Identity and Biculturalism in a Greek Imperial Epigram.Regina Höschele - 2022 - American Journal of Philology 143 (1):145-168.
- Cicero's philosophy.Stefano Maso - 2022 - Boston: De Gruyter.Cicero was not only a great Roman politician, lawyer and orator: he also dealt extensively with philosophy, which he believed constituted the surest foundation for his commitment to civic affairs. Not limiting himself to the translation of previous philosophical thought, he critically addressed central theoretical questions, and thereby made a lasting impact on Roman intellectual life. This book offers a modern guide to interpretations of Cicero's philosophical studies, one that ranges across his numerous philosophical works. Addressed to students and scholars (...)
- Philosophical role-playing in Cicero's letters to Paetus, 46 BC.Sean McConnell - 2022 - Antichthon 56:121–139.In his letters to Lucius Papirius Paetus from 46 BC Cicero provides striking reports on his thoughts and activities as he seeks to accommodate himself to the new political realities following Caesar’s decisive victory over the republican forces in Africa. In these letters Cicero also engages in a kind of performative role-playing: he casts himself variously as a teacher of oratory to two of Caesar’s close associates (Hirtius and Dolabella), as a bon vivant immersed in the Caesarian social scene, and (...)
- Review of S. Maso (2022) Cicero's Philosophy (de Gruyter)'. [REVIEW]Sean McConnell - 2022 - Bryn Mawr Classical Review.
- Katharina Volk, The Roman republic of letters: scholarship, philosophy, and politics in the age of Cicero and Caesar. Princeton; Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2021. Pp. 400. ISBN 9780691193878 $35.00 / £28.00. [REVIEW]Peter Osorio - 2022 - Bryn Mawr Classical Reviews.
- Cicero and the People’s Will: Philosophy and Power at the End of the Roman Republic.Lex Paulson - 2022 - Cambridge, United Kingdom ; New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.This book tells an overlooked story in the history of the will, a contested idea in both politics and philosophy of mind. For it is Cicero, statesman and philosopher, who gives shape to the notion of will as it would become in Western thought and who invents the idea of 'the will of the people'. In a single word – voluntas – he brings Roman law in contact with Greek ideas, chief among them Plato's claim that a rational elite must (...)
- Cicero’s Aspirationalist Radical Skepticism in the Academica.Brian Ribeiro - 2022 - History of Philosophy & Logical Analysis 25 (2):309-326.I defend the view that Cicero writes the Academica from the perspective of an aspirationalist radical skeptic. In section 2 I examine the textual evidence regarding the nature of Cicero’s skeptical stance in the Academica. In section 3 I consider the textual evidence from the Academica for attributing aspirationalism to Cicero. Finally, in section 4 I argue that while aspirationalist radical skepticism is open to a number of philosophical objections, none of those objections is decisive.
- Cicero and hobbes on the person of the state.Marko Simendic - 2022 - Filozofija I Društvo 33 (1):247-262.The importance of Thomas Hobbes?s account of personation and representation can hardly be overstated. And his intellectual debt to one of his classical foes, Marcus Tullius Cicero, can hardly be ignored. This paper compares Hobbes?s ideas on personhood of the state with Cicero?s notion of persona civitatis, and attempts to describe how Hobbes reshaped Cicero?s guidelines for presenting legitimate authority into a prop for defending any effective authority. Hobbes absorbs Cicero?s influential argument and builds on the idea of civic representation (...)
- Diez estudios de filosofía helenística y romana. La escuela italiana contemporánea.Maso Stefano (ed.) - 2022 - Madrid: UNIVERSIDAD NACIONAL DE EDUCACIÓN A DISTANCIA.En la obra que ahora presentamos al público hispanoparlante, reunimos diez trabajos previamente publicados en lengua italiana que abordan importantes cuestiones que ocupan en este momento a los estudiosos de la filosofía helenística y romana. Sus autores son diez de los más importantes especialistas italianos actuales en el estudio de este periodo histórico.
- Malcolm Schofield: Cicero: Political Philosophy: Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2021. Paperback (ISBN: 978–0-19–968492-2) £19.99. 304 pp.Gavin M. Stewart - 2022 - Ethical Theory and Moral Practice 25 (3):521-523.
- Variants of Cosmopolitanism and Individual States in Cicero’s Works.Denis Walter - 2022 - In Giovanni Giorgini & Elena Irrera (eds.), God, Religion and Society in Ancient Thought: From Early Greek Philosophy to Augustine. Academia – ein Verlag in der Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft. pp. 243-258.
- Antiochus’ Interpretation of Socrates in Cicero’s Academica.Matthew Watton - 2022 - In Socrates and the Socratic Philosophies: Selected Papers from Socratica IV. Baden-Baden: Academia Verlag. pp. 405-420.
- A Platonic Argument for the Immortality of the Soul in Cicero ( Tvscvlanae Dispvtationes 1.39–49).Matthew Watton - 2022 - Classical Quarterly 72 (2):640-657.An argument in Cicero's Tusculan Disputations (Tusc. 1.39–49) defends psychic immortality by reference to the physical constitution of the soul. This article argues that this ‘Physical Argument’ should be interpreted as a reception of Plato's doctrine of the soul within the philosophical paradigm of the Hellenistic era. After analysing the argument, it is shown that Cicero's proof recasts elements of Plato's Phaedo, in particular the kinship between the soul and the heavens and the soul's essentially contemplative nature, within a corporealist (...)
- Cicero (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy).Raphael Woolf - 2022 - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
- Cicero in Nietzsches Bibliothek.Hans-Peter Anschütz - 2021 - In Hans-Peter Anschütz, Armin Thomas Müller, Mike Rottmann & Yannick Souladié (eds.), Nietzsche als Leser. De Gruyter. pp. 157-178.$110.39 new (collection) View on Amazon.comRemove from this list Direct downloadExport citation Bookmark
- The Cambridge Companion to Cicero's Philosophy.Jed W. Atkins & Thomas Bénatouïl (eds.) - 2021 - New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.Cicero is one of the most important and influential thinkers within the history of Western philosophy. For the last thirty years, his reputation as a philosopher has once again been on the rise after close to a century of very low esteem. This Companion introduces readers to 'Cicero the philosopher' and to his philosophical writings. It provides a handy port-of-call for those interested in Cicero's original contributions to a wide variety of topics such as epistemology, the emotions, determinism and responsibility, (...)
- Philosophy in Cicero's letters.Sophie Aubert-Baillot - 2021 - In Jed W. Atkins & Thomas Bénatouïl (eds.), The Cambridge Companion to Cicero's Philosophy. Cambridge University Press.
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