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Chapter 17 - The primary natural things

oikeiōsis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 June 2012

R. W. Sharples
Affiliation:
University College London
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Summary

Cicero, On Ends 2.34

Whether or not pleasure is included among the primary natural things is a big question; but to think that nothing but pleasure is included – not one’s own bodily parts, not one’s senses, not the activity of intellect, not soundness of body, not health – seems to me the greatest ignorance. Necessarily, one’s whole account of goods and evils must flow from this as its source. Polemo, and before him Aristotle, thought those things were primary which I have just mentioned. This was the origin of the view of the Old Academy and the Peripatetics, that the ultimate good was to live in accordance with nature, that is, to enjoy the primary gifts of nature while employing virtue.

Cicero, Lucullus 131

The Old Academy judged [that the goal of life] is to live honourably while enjoying the primary things that nature grants to a human being, as is indicated by the writings of Polemo, of whom Antiochus very much approves; and Aristotle and his supporters seem to come very close to this.

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Peripatetic Philosophy, 200 BC to AD 200
An Introduction and Collection of Sources in Translation
, pp. 150 - 154
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2010

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  • The primary natural things
  • R. W. Sharples, University College London
  • Book: Peripatetic Philosophy, 200 BC to AD 200
  • Online publication: 05 June 2012
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511781506.022
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  • The primary natural things
  • R. W. Sharples, University College London
  • Book: Peripatetic Philosophy, 200 BC to AD 200
  • Online publication: 05 June 2012
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511781506.022
Available formats
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  • The primary natural things
  • R. W. Sharples, University College London
  • Book: Peripatetic Philosophy, 200 BC to AD 200
  • Online publication: 05 June 2012
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511781506.022
Available formats
×