Book contents
- The Cambridge Companion to Cicero’s Philosophy
- Series page
- The Cambridge Companion to Cicero’s Philosophy
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Contributors
- Preface
- Cicero’s Philosophical Works
- A Note on Abbreviations
- Introduction
- Chapter 1 Cicero’s Philosophical Writing in Its Intellectual Context
- Chapter 2 The Ciceronian Dialogue
- Chapter 3 Philosophy in Cicero’s Letters
- Chapter 4 Philosophy in Cicero’s Speeches
- Chapter 5 Cicero and the Creation of a Latin Philosophical Vocabulary
- Chapter 6 Cicero and Plato
- Chapter 7 Cicero’s Academic Skepticism
- Chapter 8 Cosmology, Theology, and Religion
- Chapter 9 Determinism, Fate, and Responsibility
- Chapter 10 Cicero on the Emotions and the Soul
- Chapter 11 Ethical Theory and the Good Life
- Chapter 12 Nature and Social Ethics
- Chapter 13 Philosophy, Rhetoric, and Politics
- Chapter 14 Cicero’s Republicanism
- Chapter 15 Empire, Just Wars, and Cosmopolitanism
- Chapter 16 Cicero and Augustine
- Chapter 17 Cicero and Eighteenth-Century Political Thought
- Chapter 18 Cicero and Twenty-First-Century Political Philosophy
- Bibliography
- Index of Cicero’s Texts
- General Index
- Series page
Chapter 14 - Cicero’s Republicanism
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 08 December 2021
- The Cambridge Companion to Cicero’s Philosophy
- Series page
- The Cambridge Companion to Cicero’s Philosophy
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Contributors
- Preface
- Cicero’s Philosophical Works
- A Note on Abbreviations
- Introduction
- Chapter 1 Cicero’s Philosophical Writing in Its Intellectual Context
- Chapter 2 The Ciceronian Dialogue
- Chapter 3 Philosophy in Cicero’s Letters
- Chapter 4 Philosophy in Cicero’s Speeches
- Chapter 5 Cicero and the Creation of a Latin Philosophical Vocabulary
- Chapter 6 Cicero and Plato
- Chapter 7 Cicero’s Academic Skepticism
- Chapter 8 Cosmology, Theology, and Religion
- Chapter 9 Determinism, Fate, and Responsibility
- Chapter 10 Cicero on the Emotions and the Soul
- Chapter 11 Ethical Theory and the Good Life
- Chapter 12 Nature and Social Ethics
- Chapter 13 Philosophy, Rhetoric, and Politics
- Chapter 14 Cicero’s Republicanism
- Chapter 15 Empire, Just Wars, and Cosmopolitanism
- Chapter 16 Cicero and Augustine
- Chapter 17 Cicero and Eighteenth-Century Political Thought
- Chapter 18 Cicero and Twenty-First-Century Political Philosophy
- Bibliography
- Index of Cicero’s Texts
- General Index
- Series page
Summary
In the face of current perplexity and debate about the nature of the republican tradition, this chapter recalls and more fully recovers the republican aspects of Cicero’s political philosophy. The creators of the American Republic, especially John Adams, and many others including contemporary scholars, have looked to Cicero as a major figure, if not the founder, of the republican tradition. Analysis of Cicero’s definition of res publica provides the basis for an interpretation that at its core is consent, not necessarily formal and explicit, implying liberty. To be fully human is to be free, and to be free is to be a consenting partner in a political community that is just and at liberty to set its own course. A dynamism toward equality coupled with the necessary wisdom and virtue and their implication of inequality are also essential to Cicero’s republicanism. These essentials are to inform institutions and practices. The practical wisdom in institutions includes the rule of law, indirect rather than direct popular government, and mixed government. Roman (and thus Ciceronian) republicanism can be differentiated in some respects from that very self-conscious and much-heralded form of republicanism that developed in the America of John Adams.
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- The Cambridge Companion to Cicero's Philosophy , pp. 215 - 230Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2021