Cicero and Stoicism :: History Philosophy Philosophical Cicero

Cicero, was truly a man of the state. His writings also show us he was as a man of philosophical temperament and affluence. Yet at quantify these dickens forces within Cicero clash and contradict with the earlier stoic teachings. Cicero step by step adopted the stoic alivenessstyle but non altogether entirely, and this is slightly ascribable to the fact of what it was like to be a Roman of the time. The ethical motive of everyday Rome conflicted with some of the stoic ideals that were set by early stoicism. Thus, Cicero changed the face of stoicism by romanizing it redefining stoicism into the middle phase. Of Cicero it can be said he possessed a bias towards roman life and doctrine. For Cicero every answer lay within Rome itself, from the ideal governing body to the place of divination. Cicero does not offer any alternate answers to roman society, which robs him of being truly a unique and bold political philosopher. This is not to say however some of his doctrines are unt rue, just that he is fairly blinded by his roman beliefs and assumptions. The assumptions of Cicero can be noticed when unity inspects his view of the ideal governing body, which he expresses through Scipio (in the commonwealth). Although Cicero presents very win over arguments for a Composite government, clearly his view is possibly only due towards his belief in the roman structure of government.1 Cicero was limited to roman borders of experience, and this sign was best illustrated by his disagreement with Aristotles writings on the decay of states. Cicero was uneffective to think on the level of Aristotles logic. He quite simply utilise roman history as a mapping of the paths of the decay of states. In contrast, Aristotle understood the underlying forces and influences that transpired when a state degraded. Cicero quite frankly could not understand the forces which Aristotle so eloquently denoted. For Cicero, history offered the only possible paths of outcomes the forces an d behaviors vie little part on the resulting state.2 A further point of philosophical belief which Cicero contradicted the stoic lifestyle, is religion. Roman tradition conflicted greatly with stoic doctrine, and the two philosophies could never truly harmonize with one another. This point brought the distinction amid the Greek learned world of intellect, and the traditional religious roman patronage. This comment literally draws a line between the two worlds, that of knowledge and priming coat opposing that of tradition and sentiment.