The Academic Questions, Treatise De Finibus, and Tusculan Disputations, of M.T.

Marcus Tullius CiceroProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 4.6
Word count
1.2M words
Chapters
119

Tags

English Originals Western Philosophy Classical PhilosophyHistory of PhilosophyEudaimoniaWestern ThoughtMoral DilemmaSpeculative Tradition

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.The Academic Questions, Treatise De Finibus, and Tusculan Disputations, of M.T.Author: Cicero, Marcus Tullius, 106 BCE-43 BCE,Language: English, Class: PA: Language and Literatures: Classical Languages and Literature, Release Date: Jun 26, 2009

Editor's review

This volume brings together three philosophical works by Cicero: The Academic Questions, Treatise De Finibus, and Tusculan Disputations. It is an important entry point for understanding late Roman Republican philosophical thought. In dialogue and disputation form, Cicero addresses whether knowledge is reliable, the boundaries of good and evil, happiness and pain, death and virtue, presenting disagreements among the Academic school, the Epicureans, and the Stoics while displaying his own weighing and reconciling stance. The translation is in English and serves well as a bridge into classical philosophical primary texts. Its reading value lies in training argumentative analysis: readers can see how different schools clash over the same question and appreciate Cicero's effort to bring Greek philosophy into the Latin world. It is better suited to slow reading and repeated revisiting rather than plot-driven reading; readers interested in ethics, epistemology, and the history of classical thought will gain a lasting sense of inquiry.

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Reading tips

  1. Begin with the introduction or table of contents to understand the themes of the three works, then proceed in the order of Treatise De Finibus and Tusculan Disputations.
  2. After each section, first summarize the claims of both sides in the argument, then review the key arguments to avoid getting lost in the shifts of dialogue form.
  3. Keep a notebook to record school names, core concepts, and recurring keywords, building your own concept table.
  4. Where arguments are dense, slow down and read only a few sections at a time; after finishing, restate the main points in your own words.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

Contents

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4
  5. 5
  6. 6
  7. 7
  8. 8
  9. 9
  10. 10
  11. 11
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  15. 15
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  18. 18
  19. 19
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  40. 40
  41. 41
  42. 42
  43. 43
  44. 44
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  46. 46
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  48. 48
  49. 49
  50. 50
  51. 51
  52. 52
  53. 53
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  55. 55
  56. 56
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  60. 60
  61. 61
  62. 62
  63. 63
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  111. 111
  112. 112
  113. 113
  114. 114
  115. 115
  116. 116
  117. 117
  118. 118
  119. 119

FAQ

Can I read this book without a philosophy background? You can try, but patience is needed. Cicero uses dialogue and disputation and addresses disagreements among the Academic school, the Epicureans, and the Stoics. It is advisable to first learn the basic positions of these schools, then read section by section, focusing on the lines of argument rather than memorizing terminology.
This is an English edition; is the reading threshold high? The text is an English translation with long sentences and multiple layers of argument, so good English reading ability is recommended. If it feels difficult, first consult introductory books on the history of philosophy for background, then return to the text to grasp the main points; do not insist on understanding every word.
In what order should the three works be read? You can choose according to thematic interest. Treatise De Finibus focuses on the ethical end and is suitable to read first; Tusculan Disputations deals with happiness, pain, and death and can follow; The Academic Questions is more epistemological with more specialized argument and can be placed later.
Is this book suitable for book club material? Yes. The dialogue form itself presents disagreements, making it easy for members to summarize different schools' positions by role and then discuss which side argues more forcefully. It is advisable to focus each session on one core question and assign chapters in advance to avoid covering too much in one discussion.

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About the author

Marcus Tullius Cicero Author · Roman Republic

Marcus Tullius Cicero (106 BCE–43 BCE) was a Roman statesman, orator, philosopher, and jurist. He served as consul and foiled the Catilinarian conspiracy in the late Republic, and was killed in 43 BCE for opposing Antony. A prolific author, he wrote on philosophy, rhetoric, and letters; this collection holds 22 of his works, including De Officiis, the Tusculan Disputations, the Academic Questions, and De Finibus, as well as numerous speeches and letters to Atticus. His orations are tightly argued and forceful, his philosophical writings render Greek thought in Latin, and his letters are natural and intimate, preserving valuable historical and intellectual records. Cicero is regarded as a model of Latin prose, and his style and vocabulary have profoundly shaped the European prose tradition.