Cicero's Practical Philosophy

by Nicgorski, Walter

• ISBN13: 9780268036652
• ISBN10: 0268036659
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2012-04-15
• Publisher: Univ of Notre Dame Pr

Summary

Cicero's Practical Philosophymarks a revival over the last two generations of serious scholarly interest in Cicero's political thought. Its nine original essays by a multidisciplinary group of distinguished international scholars manifest close study of Cicero's philosophical writings and great appreciation for him as a creative thinker, one from whom we can continue to learn. This collection focuses initially on Cicero's major work of political theory, his De Re Publica, and the key moral virtues that shape his ethics, but the contributors attend to all of Cicero's primary writings on political community, law, the ultimate good, and moral duties. Room is also made for Cicero's extensive writings on the art of rhetoric, which he explicitly draws into the orbit of his philosophical writings. Cicero's concern with the divine, with epistemological issues, and with competing analyses of the human soul are among the matters necessarily encountered in pursuing, with Cicero, the large questions of moral and political philosophy, namely, what is the good and genuinely happy life and how are our communities to be rightly ordered. The volume also reprints Walter Nicgorski's classic essay "Cicero and the Rebirth of Political Philosophy," which helped spark the current revival of interest in Cicero the philosopher. "This well-planned and exceptionally well-written collection of articles brings together leading Cicero scholars of our day on a carefully chosen set of topics. As such, this book is an invaluable account of the current state of Cicero studies, while advancing those studies." - Gerard Wegemer, University of Dallas

Author Biography

Walter Nicgorski is professor in the program of liberal studies and concurrent professor of political science at the University of Notre Dame.

Table of Contents

List of Contributors	p. ix
Acknowledgments	p. xi
Abbreviations	p. xiii
Introduction	p. 1
Cicero's De Re Publica and the Virtues of the Statesman	p. 14
The Fourth Virtue	p. 43
Philosophical Life versus Political Life: An Impossible Choice for Cicero?	p. 58
Cicero's Constantia in Theory and Practice	p. 79
Cicero and the Perverse: The Origins of Error in De Legibus 1 and Tusculan Disputations 3	p. 113
Radical and Mitigated Skepticism in Cicero's Academica	p. 133
The Politico-Philosophical Character of Cicero's Verdict in De Natura Deorum	p. 152
Between Urbs and Orbis: Cicero's Conception of the Political Community	p. 181
Cicero on Property and the State	p. 212
Appendix: Cicero and the Rebirth of Political Philosophy	p. 242
Bibliography	p. 283
Index of Citations of Cicero	p. 298
General Index	p. 305
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