Cicero's Influence On Politics

In addition, Brutus claimed tyranny resulted from the inability and impracticality of a large republic to remain truly democratic and representative of the will of the people. Brutus argued the people are the ultimate sovereigns in a free government who give their assent to the laws through elected

Epicureanism is a philosophy developed the teachings and ideals of a man named Epicurus. Epicureanism is defined by Epicurus as the pleasure for the end of all morality and that real pleasure is attained through a life of prudence, honor, and justice. Epicurus introduced this philosophy around 322 B.C, and two schools established in Athens. Epicurus taught the ethics of his philosophy in his school, that a person should live by "the art of making life happy", and that "prudence is the noblest part of philosophy"(newadvent.org). Epicurus ideals for life intrigued people and they began to think that perhaps the ethics of Epicureanism had some truth behind it; a person should live his/her life to the fullest in order to become happy. Epicurus

Cicero thinks that the happiest condition for a wise man to be in is when he or she makes a decision and sticks by it no matter the circumstance (Discussions at Tusculum 95). Cicero also says that an “insignificant, obscur[e], or unpopular” lifestyle will not prevent the wise man from being happy and pursuing the good life (Discussions at Tusculum 106). In Cicero’s version of the good life, men and women stick to their beliefs no matter what trials or torture they occur, and he believes that being morally good is the path to follow in order to live the good life.

Both Marcus Aurelius and Cicero try to create a guide, based on their stoic views, on how a person is supposed to live a purposeful life. Marcus Aurelius was an emperor and Cicero was a politician, so both serve somebody or something. In Cicero’s “On Friendship” he bases his guides on what he has learned from important people in his life. In Marcus Aurelius’ “Meditations” he bases his guide off of what he has learned as an emperor with stoic views. Some of what he Aurelius has learned is different from Cicero’s view of stoicism; an example of this is in section seven of Meditations. Section seven of Meditations is about what Aurelius learned from his tutor. He states, “Endure hardship, and have few needs; to do things for myself and not

Throughout this Book 1, the discussion digresses multiple times to explore the method by which the topic will be examined. Realising that concepts such as happiness are subjective, he establishes in the third Chapter that the fruits of the discussion will be satisfactory so long as it holds true universally. He also considers in Chapter four whether the discussion should originate from the principles, or from our experiences, and suggests that we should being from things known and immediate to us, which seems to be a logical choice as the discussions as a whole focus on what a man should do in order to act according to virtue in order to become good and attain happiness. In addition, the sixth Chapter is devoted to criticism of the theory of Forms. Since good can exist in so many different ways, but are undoubtedly good, Aristotle argues that there is no common idea governing it. He also denies the existence of separate Forms that are merely mimicked by what we perceive, since a thing and the Thing Itself has the same

     When talking about happiness and goodness, there must be an important quality present. According to Aristotle, people need to practice balance and moderation in their every day lives. Achieving this middle ground, or mean, translates into being virtuous in Aristotle’s mind. If virtue is present, so is its opposite vise. For every virtue, there are two vices. One vice is excessive while the other is deficiency. Courage works as a great example because it is virtuous. The excessive vise is recklessness and the

Background Cicero was one of the greatest orators in Ancient Rome. He was not of noble birth, but in 64 BCE became consul, one of the most powerful offices in the Roman Republic. Cicero's time as consul was difficult, and he successfully prevented an overthrow of the Republic and his own assassination. Once Julius Caesar began to amass more and more personal power, however, he receded from active politics because he believed the ideals of the Republic would be diffused with tyranny. Once Caesar was assassinated, Cicero again became popular but because of his dislike (public and private) of Mark Antony, as Antony's power grew, Cicero's diminished. He was killed in December 43 BCE after being declared an enemy of the Republic.

Marcus Tullius Cicero was known in his time as a lawyer, and he works his way up the ladder to become a politician. Cicero was one of the most influential republic politician in his time proven his success by coming up with ideas that would help maintain the Republic during a time when civil war was on the rise beating on Rome’s doors. Cicero would make friends with Julius Caesar and persuade him to follow the republican values of justice. Cicero was smart enough to know that if Caesar did not back his ideas he could be in danger. Unfortunately, Julius Caesar gets murdered and his son hears through the grapevine that Cicero was disloyal and unsupportive.

Among the virtues, Cicero grants precedence to the fellowship of men and deems justice “the most illustrious of the virtues, on account of which men are called ‘good’” (9). Consequently, Cicero enumerates in detail the ways in which one can exemplify this virtue, so as to be considered a good man. The duties of justice concern themselves “with preserving fellowship among men, with assigning to each his own, and with faithfulness to agreements one has made” (7). For the political man, maintaining community among citizens is the foremost duty of justice. As to the subliminal caveat for the populace, which allows one to determine the justness of a man, Cicero posits, “on the question of keeping faith, you must always think of what you meant, not of what you said” (18). Furthermore, of injustice, Cicero asserts, “nothing deserves punishment more than that of men who, just at the time when they are most betraying trust, act in such a way that they might appear to be good men” (19). This interpolation, as Cicero completes the doctrine concerning justice, portends the purpose of his third virtue.

In the Republic of Plato, the philosopher Socrates lays out his notion of the good, and draws the conclusion that virtue must be attained before one can be good. For Socrates there are two kinds of virtue; collective and individual. Collective virtue is virtue as whole, or the virtues of the city. Individual virtue pertains to the individual himself, and concerns the acts that the individual does, and concerns the individual’s soul. For Socrates, the relationship between individual and collective virtue is that they are the same, as the virtues of the collective parallel those of the Individual. This conclusion can be reached as both the city and the soul deal with the four main virtues of wisdom, courage, moderation, and justice.

“Happiness in particular is believed to be complete without qualification, since we always choose it for itself and never for the sake of anything else. Honour, pleasure, intellect, and every virtue we do indeed choose for themselves (since we would choose each of them even if they had no good effects), but we choose them also for the sake of happiness, on the assumption that through them we shall live a life of happiness; whereas happiness no one chooses for the sake of any of these nor indeed for the sake of anything else.” ( Aristotle 10-11) Aristotle is the other view of happiness that will be discussed. With him and the Stoics, they are both kind of similar due to both believe in virtue for happiness, Aristotle says virtue a different way and other ways about happiness. Aristotle along with the Stoic’s believe that virtues is the same, but Aristotle says this about virtue “and if we take this kind of life to be activity of the soul and actions in accordance with reason, and the characteristic activity of the good person to be to carry this out well and nobly, and a characteristic activity to be accomplished well when it is accomplished in accordance with the appropriate virtue; then if this is so, the human good turns out to be

On the source of virtuousness, both Confucius and Aristotle agree that individuals should undertake self-cultivation of virtue. Aristotlebelieved that virtue was the key to a flourishing life (eudaimonia) and thus for a man to have a flourishing life in society, he must work on his attitudes, habits and behaviors to be acceptable in that society

Virtue ethics was written by a Greek philosopher names Aristotle. Aristotle believed that every human’s goal was happiness. Some philosophers argued that happiness only came from following a set of rules, while Aristotle argued that the best way to have happiness is to cultivate a virtuous character. The two kinds of virtues he recognized were moral virtue and intellectual virtue. The virtue that should be focused on to develop a virtuous character is moral virtue. According to Aristotle, while we are born with a capacity to be virtuous, being virtuous is like a skill that we need to learn and practice to be good at. The key element to being virtuous is being able to find the mean or right amount of our various emotions, dispositions, and actions. Aristotle wrote: “Anybody can become angry- that is easy, but to be angry with the right person and to the right degree and at the right time and for

One of the last major philosophers of Virtue Ethics was Plutarch who advocated virtue but disagreed with Epicurus because he believed there was no true pleasure. At this same time, between 400 B.C.- 40 B.C. Stoic philosophers such Cicero, who combined the philosophies of Aristotle and Plato, developed his idea on ethics and how everyone has a duty and should imitate virtue for others. He said duty has two points which are to achieve the Supreme Good, and follow the rules for daily living. Cicero was a strong believer in rationality incorporated Plato’s Cardinal Virtues into his three rules of conduct: master desires through reason, know true value of goals and be moderate in actions and lifestyle.

To start with, Aristotle highlights that the perception of virtue is different for everyone, and there are a lot of factors which influence it. For example, people's moral principles, mentality, the society they live in and its formative culture peculiarities. The highest human good is considered to be in close relations with the sense of happiness. As all people have different characters, attitudes to life, moral values, it is difficult to define the conditions on which their happiness depends. Aristotle, an ancient Greek philosopher, writes that the highest human good "proves to be the activity of the soul in accord with virtue" (Aristotle, trans. Irvin T., 1999). In other words, it is the way of a person's appropriate behavior in the situations of different nature and difficulty in his or her life.