Leonardo Bruni's Defence of Cicero's 'honour' in the Cicero Novus (original) (raw)
Related papers
The Classical Review, 2010
ment, Epicurean views on death and the telos, and the relation between Epicurean tranquillitas and Ciceronian otium cum dignitate. There is an epilogue, drawing the threads of the argument together. Cicero rejects above all Epicurean quietism, but because, as he recognises, Epicurus is a systematic thinker, he fi nds it necessary also to probe the physics and the conception of the cosmos on which the whole system is founded. M. is a level-headed and well-informed scholar, who writes pleasantly. His main thesis and detailed discussions perhaps break little fresh ground, but they constitute an eminently reliable and readable account of Cicero's engagement with Epicureanism as evidenced in the philosophical dialogues. M. is generous in his citation of the most relevant non-Ciceronian evidence on the Epicurean topics in Cicero listed above, and helpfully deploys an impressive knowledge of bibliography. All this makes the book-beautifully produced to Bibilopolis's usual high standards, with good indexes-a resource anyone working on this material will fi nd it useful to consult. There are one or two missed opportunities. One thing which might have enriched M.'s study would have been fuller exploitation of Cicero's non-philosophical writings, particularly the letters. M. has interesting remarks in observations on otium and amicitia (pp. 143-50, which rather oddly form part of the introduction to his account of the doxography of ND 1), and on otium honestum (pp. 279-99, where good use is made of the speeches, Pro Sestio in particular). More in this vein would have been welcome. M. does not appear to know Yasmina Benferhat's fi ne study Cives Epicurei (2005; reviewed in CR 57 [2007], 179-81), which is illuminating inter alia on Atticus' Epicureanism and Cicero's attitude to it. As for the dialogues, M. has nothing to say about the remarkable philosophical rhetoric of the concluding pages of Book 5 of the Tusculan Disputations, where having argued at length for the Stoic thesis that virtue alone is suffi cient for happiness, Cicero takes up the challenge of showing that even Epicurus can make a powerful case for thinking that the sapiens will remain beatus whatever gruesome misfortunes come his way (TD 5.88-118). After the critique of Epicurean ethics in Book 2 of De fi nibus, could Cicero's readers ever have anticipated that in handling that locus qui totam philosophiam maxime illustrat (Div. 2.2), the culminating tour de force would present even Epicurean philosophy as in this supremely important matter uitae … dux (TD 5.5)?
Cicero on Different Kinds of Respect for Persons. A ‘Darwallian’ Approach
2014
The present paper will investigate the notion of "respect" and its plurality of expressions in the work of Cicero. Such an investigation will be conducted by way of a reading of selected passages from his De Republica, De Legibus and De Officiis. With a view to this, I shall make use of the conceptual taxonomy of respect worked out by a contemporary political philosopher, Stephen Darwall. In his Two Kinds of Respect, 1977, and The second person standpoint, 2006, he draws a distinction between four different kinds of respect: (1) what he calls "appraisal respect", that is, a relational attitude grounded on the recognition of a supposed ethical or intellectual excellence of the respected subject ; (2) a form called "respect as honour", that is, an asymmetrical attitude based on the acceptation of a privileged role or social position held by the respected subject and, therefore, an attitude grounded on the recognition of the latter's authority to claim such a kind of treatment; (3) respect for "epistemic authority", which has as its basis a kind of recognition of the technical expertise of the respected subject relative to a given field of knowledge; (4) respect as "second-personal reciprocal recognition". Such a kind of respectprobably the most relevant one from a political point of view-is grounded on the recognition of the moral authority of each and every member of the poltical community. By applying Darwall's conceptual models of respect to the analysis of Cicero's works, I shall attempt to show that the all four kinds of respect mentioned above make their appearance in Cicero's works, and that each of them, instead of subsisting separately from the other kinds, is forged by the intersection with at least one of the others.
Introduction to Cicero as Philosopher
Cicero as Philosopher. New Perspectives on His Philosophy and Its Legacy, 2024
We sayt his with the caveat that as harp distinctionb etween Cicero's 'public' writings and 'private' letters is untenable. Cicero wasi ns everal respects engagingi np ublic or quasi-public acts when writinghis letters. Furthermore, the myriad letters he wrote vary with respectt ot heir privacya nd design. 2 On Cicero'ss elf-fashioning, see Bishop 2019 and Dugan2 005. 3 See Reinhardt 2022bfor adetailed summary of this scholarlydebate. See Allen 2022 for arecent accountofCicero'sradicalism that incorporates manyofthe features scholars have come to associatew ith mitigated skepticism.